TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisia’s President Kais Saied won re-election in a landslide victory after a campaign season that saw his opponents jailed alongside journalists, activists and attorneys.
The North African country’s Independent High Authority for Elections 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.
The election was Tunisia’s third since the 2011 Arab Spring, when protests for “bread, freedom and dignity” led to the ouster of President .
In the years that followed, Tunisia enshrined a new 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 constitutiuon to consolidate the power of the presidency.
Bouazza Ben Bouazza And Annie Risemberg, The Associated Press
