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Diplomania
Oct 103 min read

Tunisian Elections: Presidential Vote, Poor Governance and Protests

By: Nishtha Sadhoo


The author is a first-year master’s student at the Jindal School of International Affairs. She can be reached at 24jsia-nsadhoo@jgu.edu.in  


Image Source: Zoubeir Souissi/Reuters


Introduction 

On 4th October 2024, two days before the presidential vote, the capital of Tunisia was wrought with protests against President Kais Saied. The citizens voiced their frustration through banners calling out the “Farce Elections” and demanding “Freedoms, not lifelong Presidency.” The protests stem from the autocratic actions of the President, who manipulated the electoral system to the point of having only two rival candidates, one of whom has been levied with several electoral fraud charges. The President’s actions completely contradicted the anti-corruption measures he pledged to implement, which won him popular support in 2019.  


Saied's rise to power 


When Kais Saied decided to contest for the presidential post, he was a law scholar representing the “non-elite” in Tunisia. He promised a booming economy, the elimination of corruption, and empowering citizens with ‘tools’ if voted to power. He also pledged to revive the ‘weakening’ public institutions by bolstering medical facilities, social security, and transportation services. He found a support base in the younger demographic, dissatisfied with the constant tensions between political classes and won by a landslide victory of 70%.  


Unravelling decades of democratic infrastructure 


In 2021, the President initiated what has been popularly known as a “self-coup”, where he suspended parliament to break the “persistent cycles of political paralysis and economic decay.” He also rewrote the Constitution and reserved all executive power for the president. He has also overridden the judicial system's independence by stripping them of the jurisdiction to adjudicate on Parliamentary election disputes. He shut down opposition to his power grab by firing the majority of his cabinet members and detaining nearly 170 people on political grounds, most of whom were his most outspoken critics.  


During his tenure, the unemployment rate in Tunisia has reached a record high of 16%, which is forming the push factor for migration towards Europe. Saied has used these figures to accuse the black sub-Saharan migrants of causing the country’s economic downfall, stating that they are “traitors who are working for foreign countries.” This populist approach has led to increased racial tensions in Tunisia.  


As part of the ongoing election process, the Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE) has rejected several organisations that applied to be election observers and refused to add the names of three candidates who won court appeals against its previous rejections. The electoral commission, named by Saied, has been accused of acting as per his directives. Furthermore, concerning his two rival candidates, Ayachi Zammel has been handed three prison sentences totalling 12 years on the grounds of “forging election documents”, while Zouhair Maghzoui was a previous supporter of Saied but has recently turned into a critic.  


Is it too late to be a dictator?  


Post his “self-coup”, President Saeid quoted ex-French President Charles de Gaulle in response to autocratic accusations by the New York Times, stating, “Why do you think that, at 67, I would start a career as a dictator?” However, his actions and their impact speak otherwise. Since 2021, Tunisia has fallen from 53rd to 82nd place on the Economist’s Intelligence Unit’s democracy index. The senior members of the largest opposition party, Ennahda, have been arrested. Human Rights Watch has claimed that eight other rival candidates have been forcibly excluded from contesting using prosecution and arrests. The World Bank is concerned about the 16% unemployment rate. The European Union has given Tunisia $118 million to prevent smuggling and immigration, which has been taken without any reciprocal effort in the economy to create jobs. Given the state of political affairs, there was only an 11% turnout for parliamentary elections, with citizens threatening not to participate in the upcoming presidential election.  


Conclusion 


Tunisia prides itself on being the starting point for the Arab Spring in the late 2010s and is viewed as an exemplar of democratic values by the Arab World. The country has shunted autocratic leaders since the fall of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011 via massive protests. However, President Saied seems to be set on dismantling the democratic institutions, built from the ground up by the citizen’s efforts. The current election is said to be essentially a “referendum on Kais Saied,” as was noted by Sarah Yerkes from the Carnegie Endowment. It is now for the Tunisian people to reclaim their hard-earned democracy, and fight to secure back their right to determine their destiny.  


Bibliography 



The views expressed in this article are those of the author (s). They do not reflect the views or opinions of Diplomania or its members.

 

  

 

 

  

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