Tunis, Oct 6 (EFE).- Polling stations across Tunisia opened on Sunday morning for a presidential election in which incumbent Kais Said is widely expected to win a second term following a crackdown on dissidents and opposition candidates.
The vote is being held amid fairness concerns over restrictions on election observers and Said’s political opponents, many of whom have been jailed or disqualified from running.
Said, 66, won the 2019 presidential election in a runoff and initiated a controversial power grab in July 2021 by suspending Parliament, claiming the move was needed to «correct the revolutionary path» set by the Arab Spring pro-democracy revolts in 2011.
After the opposition denounced the move as a «coup,» Said organized a referendum to adopt a new constitution, which passed despite a 70% abstention rate.
The new constitution established an authoritarian system that granted the president far greater powers.
Said has since been accused of exerting control over the judiciary, while dozens of dissidents, particularly members of the opposition, have been imprisoned.
Two leading election observation groups, I Watch and Mourakiboun, both of which have monitored past elections in Tunisia, have been barred from monitoring this time around by Tunisia’s Independent High Electoral Body (ISIE).
The climate of fear has spread among Said’s opponents, who are torn between boycotting or supporting jailed candidate Ayachi Zammel.
Zammel, 47, was arrested just hours before his candidacy was formalized and sentenced to a total of 14 years in prison across three different cases.
The third candidate, Zouhair Maghzaoui, a former ally of Said, has maintained a low profile after being sanctioned for giving interviews to international media.
The new Parliament, whose powers are limited under the new constitution, recently passed a reform of the electoral law to remove electoral oversight from the Administrative Court, the last institution considered independent of the president’s influence.
On Thursday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) expressed concerns that the Tunisian authorities were undermining the fairness of the election.
“Tunisian authorities are systematically placing obstacle after obstacle in the way of a fair election and opposition candidates being able to campaign for president freely,” the HRW said.
Polling stations will close at 9pm local time, and final results are expected on Oct. 9.EFE
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