Tunisians will elect their new president on October 6, but the electoral climate is marked by accusations of authoritarian drift against President Kaïs Saïed and criticism from organizations on the integrity of the elections.
Tunisians are expected to choose their new president on October 6. Although the electoral campaign has not yet officially started, Kaïs Saïed is accused, one month before the election, of authoritarian drift following several arrests and rejection of candidacies.
3 out of 6 candidates accepted
The presidential campaign, whose official launch is scheduled for September 14, has already experienced complications during the submission of candidacies. Despite various challenges, 17 candidates submitted their files, but only three candidates will have their applications validated. the ISIE, which announced on August 10 the preliminary list of selected candidates, only validated the files of Ayachi Zammel, former deputy and leader of a small party, Zouhair Maghzaoui, former deputy and leader of the People’s Movement, and the outgoing president, Kaïs Saïed.
Three other applicants, considered serious competitors of President Kais Saied, were readmitted on August 10 by the Administrative Court which accepted their appeal, before being ousted by the Tunisian electoral authority.
The candidates readmitted by the Court are Abdellatif Mekki, a former leader of the Ennadha movement, Mondher Zenaïdi, a former minister of the Ben Ali regime, and Imed Daïmi, an advisor to former president Moncef Marzouki, also close to Ennahdha.
The Tunisian justice system then placed Ayachi Zammel in detention on September 6, arrested on Monday, September 2, and released on provisional release Thursday evening awaiting trial in a case of “falsification of sponsorships”. But barely released, the candidate was arrested and then taken by the national guard to Jendouba, 150 km northwest of Tunis.
Criticism of the ISIE and the elections
The ISIE’s decision aroused strong opposition among various public actors in Tunisia. Legal associations and human rights organizations unanimously deemed it illegal, saying it seriously undermined the credibility and integrity of the upcoming elections.
Tunisia’s main trade union center, the UGTT, also denounced a “dangerous violation” of the law after the exclusion of three presidential candidates.
The NGO Human Rights Watch, for its part, accused the ISIE of “intervening to distort the vote in favor of Saied”. HRW further deplored that “at least eight” potential candidates were “convicted, imprisoned or prosecuted”, preventing them from running in the presidential election.
Twenty-six Tunisian and international NGOs and nearly 200 personalities demanded in a petition respect for “pluralism” during the presidential election of October 6, demanding the application of administrative decisions to readmission of candidates initially rejected by the electoral authority.
They also deplore “restrictions” and “refusals of accreditation” imposed on various electoral observation organizations and warn against “repeated attacks on press freedom”.
Ministerial reshuffle one month before elections
On August 26, Tunisian President Kais Saied carried out a vast ministerial reshuffle for “national security” reasons, just over a month before the presidential election.
This surprise reshuffle concerned 19 ministers, including those of Foreign Affairs and Defense, and three secretaries of state, after the dismissal at the beginning of August of the Prime Minister.
The information site Business News speaks of a “purge” one month before the elections.
Since President Saied, 66, elected in 2019, seized all powers in a coup on July 25, 2021, he has been accused of authoritarian drift by the opposition and his detractors.
