The next presidential elections in Tunisia are expected to be held in September or October 2024, while doubts are expressed by opponents about the willingness of President Kaïs Saïed to organize this election within the required time frame, by the 2014 constitution that he had repealed in 2022. (Illustration: Supporters of independent presidential candidate Kaïs Saïed in Tunis, Tunisia, October 11, 2019. Ph. EPA-EFE/Ahmed Jalil).
These dates were put forward by the spokesperson for the Independent High Authority for Elections (Isie), Mohamed Tlili Mnasri, on Sunday, February 4, 2024, adding that the electoral commission will begin preparations for the next presidential elections just after the implementation place of the National Council of Regions and Districts, resulting from the local elections whose second round was held yesterday and was marked by a very low participation rate of 12.44%.
Mnasri, who spoke on the sidelines of a press briefing organized by Isie on Sunday in Tunis, indicated that under the laws in force – which, according to him, have not been modified – the presidential elections should take place within the constitutional deadlines, during the last three months of the presidential term.
Chapter 90 of the 2022 Constitution states that the president must be elected for a term of five years in general, free, direct, and secret elections during the last three months of the presidential term, by an absolute majority of the votes cast.
The President of the Republic Kaïs Saïed won the second round of the 2019 presidential election against Nabil Karoui with 72.71% of the votes. According to the constitution, the president’s five-year term is set to end next fall. And the latter has often reiterated his determination to respect electoral deadlines. Some opponents denounce what they call his “autocratic drift” and consider that his political project does not support the presence of opposition in the country.
At a time when many opposition leaders are imprisoned, and prosecuted in various cases, including Rached Ghannouchi and Abir Moussi, leaders of the two main parties in the country, Ennahdha and the Free Destourian Party (PDL), and in particular the second which is given as the main competitor of Kaïs Saïed for the palace of Carthage, these doubts are expressed in an increasingly insistent manner, while ten months before the presidential election, the president of the republic has not yet published the decree-law setting the date of this election and calling voters to the polls. He also failed to enact a new electoral law, per the 2022 constitution.
