President Kais Saied, the incumbent independent, has been officially re-elected for another five-year term to be the eighth President of Tunisia, securing more than 90% of votes, announced Farouk Bouasker, head of Tunisia’s independent commission for elections (ISIE), in a press conference held on October 7 in Tunis.
An exit poll broadcast on public television after the end of voting had projected that the 66-year-old Saied was set to win with 89.2% support, but from a turnout of less than 28%, according to the country’s election body.
The third presidential election held after the Tunisian revolution took place in an unprecedented legal and electoral process where many candidates were disqualified and imprisoned while the Parliament passed a law stripping the administrative court of its role to adjudicate the electoral disputes; no candidate can appeal results later.
According to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Tunisia’s president was using the law to secure his election victory. Seventeen candidates formally filed papers with the ISIE. Fourteen were disqualified for failing to acquire the required signatures, failing to meet the nationality criteria, or failing to provide a sufficiently high financial guarantee.
Additionally, seven potential candidates said they were unable to file their paperwork, as they could not obtain legal documents from the Ministry of Interior showing that they had no criminal records.
Three candidates have appealed against their disqualifications in the administrative court which has reinstated them. Yet the electoral commission defied the administrative court ruling and allowed only three candidates on the ballot; Zouhaier Maghzaoui was the only candidate able to campaign, and he visited different Tunisian cities to introduce himself as a candidate.
Saied relied on volunteers to campaign for him and he delivered a speech only two days before the election was held while Ayachi Zammal was jailed for falsifying nominations and sentenced to at least 12 years in prison.
In a recent electoral speech, Saied promised to reform the economy by restructuring the public sectors for instance public health, transport and education. However, these promises seem unachievable within the current blocked political climate.
In a report published by the Arab Centre Washington DC on September 6, researcher Patricia Karam asserted that “though he sees himself as a man of solutions, Saied has not been able to resolve the country’s economic problems or provide a semblance of political stability.”
Re-electing Saied despite his inability to improve the economy during his first term means that Tunisians still have confidence in him but their expectations have become higher. Therefore, it is expected that he will face more social-economic challenges that he cannot ignore anymore
