Political Turbulence in Tunisia

The Thumb and the Scale Tunisia Tunisia’s election campaign season kicked off Saturday, a day after mass protests erupted in the capital Tunis against President Kais Saied, who demonstrators say is trying to rig next month’s presidential vote, Reuters reported. Friday’s demonstrations were among the largest in the three years since Saied dissolved parliament and began ruling by decree, a move opponents have described as a “constitutional coup.” Protesters accused the 66-year-old president of acting as a dictator and demanded the release of opposition politicians, journalists and activists detained for opposing Saied. The protests come weeks after the electoral commission – whose members were appointed by Saied – disqualified three major election candidates over alleged irregularities. Earlier this month, a court ordered the commission to reinstate the contenders, but the electoral body rejected the ruling. With the disqualifications, only three candidates remain in the Oct. 6 presidential election: Saied, Zouhair Maghzaoui, and Ayachi Zammel. However, Zammel was jailed last week over allegations of falsifying voter signatures, charges he said are politically motivated. Meanwhile, authorities have arrested more than 100 members of the main Islamist opposition party, Ennahda, ahead of the race, the Middle East Eye reported. First elected in 2019 on a campaign against corruption, Saied has come under fire for cracking down on the opposition and consolidating his own power, including rewriting Tunisia’s constitution to benefit himself, Africanews added. Despite his promise to set a new direction for the country, Tunisia’s unemployment rate has continued to rise, reaching 16 percent, one of the highest in the region, with young Tunisians bearing the brunt of the impact. Many of Saied’s opponents have accused him of undermining the democratic progress Tunisia made after the 2011 revolution.