Tunisia: President Kais Saied wins second term

Tunisian President Kais Saied won re-election in a landslide, according to official results reported on Monday evening. 

Tunisia's Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE) said that Saied had won 90.7% of the vote, far ahead of imprisoned businessman Ayachi Zammel and Zouhair Maghzaoui, a leftist who supported the president before choosing to run against him.

Crackdown on opponents 

Several of Saied's challengers were arrested in the lead-up to the election, along with the ongoing imprisonment of right-wing and Islamist critics. 

"We're going to cleanse the country of all the corrupt and schemers," Saied said at his campaign headquarters amid jubilant scenes from his supporters.

Ahead of Sunday's vote Saied cited "a long war against conspiratorial forces linked to foreign circles," accusing them of "infiltrating many public services and disrupting hundreds of projects" during his time as president.

Low voter turnout 

Upon assuming office in 2019, Saied pledged to right Tunisia's political wrongs after the nation ousted longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.

Five years into his term, Amnesty International said there's been "a worrying decline in fundamental rights in the birthplace of the Arab Spring," the regional uprisings against authoritarian rule that began in Tunisia in 2011.

In 2021, he staged a power grab and dismissed parliament, replacing it with a rubber-stamp legislature. A year later, he consolidated power by rewriting the constitution, enshrining a one-man rule 

When polling stations closed Monday, only 2.7 million voters had cast ballots, amounting to nearly 28% of the electorate, the Associated Press reported. During the last presidential election in 2019, voter participation in the first round of voting was around 49%. 

jsi/wmr (AP, AFP)