Exit polls show landslide win for North African leader

The Tunisian president received 89.2% of the vote and vowed to pursue traitors and corrupt individuals

Tunisian President Kais Saied is set to win a second term after preliminary results from Sunday’s elections showed him obtaining more than 89% of the vote. The North African nation’s leader faced off against two opponents, one of whom was sentenced to 12 years in prison just days before polling.

According to exit polls from Sigma Conseil, an independent research and polling agency, Saied won 89.2% of the vote, Zouhair Maghzaoui received 3.9%, and Ayachi Zammel, who was jailed late last month for falsifying documents, had 6.9%.

The election commission announced after the polls closed that only 2.7 million people – 27.7% of eligible voters – had cast ballots. It’s far less than the 49% who voted in the first round of the previous race in 2019. Official results are not expected until Monday evening.

Critics, including Human Rights Watch, accused Tunisian authorities of using prosecution, conviction, and imprisonment to prevent eight opposition candidates from running in the presidential election. The accusation came after the former French colony’s electoral authority approved the candidacies of Saied, Magzhaoui, who is believed to be an ally of the president, and Zammel in August, out of more than a dozen candidates.

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Saied, a former law professor, came to power in 2019, promising prosperity in a country that has been grappling with economic difficulties dating back to the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.

In July 2021, the 66-year-old politician suspended parliamentary activities, stripped MPs of their immunity, and fired then-Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi. His opponents accused him of staging a coup and reversing the nation’s achievements since the longtime ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s forced resignation in 2011 during the Arab Spring.

Non-profit Amnesty International claimed in a report last year that the state of human rights in Tunisia had deteriorated two years after Saied’s “power grab.” According to the organization, 21 Tunisians, including opposition figures, lawyers, and businessmen, are facing conspiracy charges for opposing the president’s rule.

The president has, however, repeatedly denounced foreign interference and referred to his second-term campaign as part of a pledge to “keep up the fight in the battle for national liberation.”

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On Sunday, national television footage showed supporters celebrating the projected win of President Saied, who later announced that he would wait for official results before declaring victory.

“This is a continuation of the revolution. We will build and will cleanse the country of the corrupt, traitors, and conspirators,” Saied told state broadcaster TVN in his first remarks from his campaign headquarters.