Tunisia’s President Saied wins landslide re-election after cracking down on opponents

Tunisia’s President Kais Saied won a landslide re-election victory in results announced on Monday after a campaign season that saw his opponents jailed alongside journalists, activists and lawyers.

The North African country’s Independent High Authority for Elections, known as ISIE, said on Monday evening that Saied had won 90.7 per cent of the vote – a reflection of how his supporters took part in Sunday’s race while most his detractors chose to boycott.

His closest challenger, businessman Ayachi Zammel, won 7.4 per cent of the vote after sitting in prison for most of the campaign season, facing multiple prison sentences for election-related crimes.

Election officials reported 28.8 per cent voter turnout – a significantly smaller showing than the first round of the country’s previous elections.

It was Tunisia’s third presidential race since the 2011 Arab spring, when protests for “bread, freedom and dignity” led to the ousting of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

In the years that followed, Tunisia enshrined a new constitution and created a multiparty democracy.

However, Saied began dismantling the country’s new institutions two years after taking office. In July 2021, he declared a state of emergency, suspended parliament and rewrote the constitution to consolidate the power of the presidency.