Tunisia's President Saied wins landslide reelection after cracking down on opponents

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisia’s President Kais Saied won a landslide reelection victory in results announced Monday after a campaign season that saw his opponents jailed alongside journalists, activists and attorneys.

The North African country’s Independent High Authority for Elections, known as ISIE, said Monday evening that Saied had won 90.7% of the vote — a reflection of how his supporters participated in Sunday’s race while the majority of his detractors chose to boycott.

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

Election officials reported 28.8% 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 ouster of President 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.

Throughout his first term in office, authorities unleashed a wave of repression on the country's once-vibrant civil society. In 2023, some of his most prominent opponents from across the political spectrum were thrown in prison, including right-wing leader Abir Moussi and Islamist Rached Ghannouchi, the co-founder of the party Ennahda and former speaker of Tunisia's parliament.

Dozens of others were imprisoned on charges including inciting disorder, undermining state security and violating a controversial anti-fake news law critics say has been used to stifle dissent.

The pace of the arrests picked up earlier this year, when authorities began targeting additional lawyers, journalists, migration activists and the former head of the post-Arab Spring Truth and Dignity Commission.

Dozens of candidates had expressed interest in challenging the president, and 17 submitted preliminary paperwork to run in Sunday’s race. However, members of the election commission approved only the three. Upon publication of the final list of candidates, Zammel was promptly jailed.

The role of the commission and its members, all of whom are appointed by the president, came under scrutiny during the campaign season. They defied court rulings ordering them to reinstate three candidates they had previously rejected. The parliament subsequently passed a law stripping power from the administrative courts.