However, the country’s authoritarian turn under incumbent President Kais Saied and months of rampant repression against his political opposition, the press, and civil society have already ensured that the election will be neither free nor fair.
MEDC’s election monitor documents and contextualizes violations related to Tunisia’s presidential election infringing on the possibility of a free and fair election. This webpage includes: a data tracker that tallies and categorizes violations, a timeline that provides key events, profiles of the candidates and excluded presidential hopefuls, and background resources on Kais Saied’s authoritarian toolkit and Tunisia’s electoral process.
Violations are identified by MEDC through open source and observational research. Data begins on July 3rd, when the date of the presidential election was announced.
The below tracker tallies and categorizes violations preventing Tunisia’s presidential election from being free and fair. Click on the icons below for more detailed information about each type of violation that has occurred since the presidential election was announced. The below data was last updated on October 3, 2024. See here for details on each violation.
The below timeline includes key events preventing a free and fair election including arrests, political developments, and judicial actions beginning July 3. For more information on each entry, click view source.
Tunisian President Kais Saied is seeking reelection after winning the office in 2019 and executing a sweeping power grab beginning in July 2021 that has dismantled Tunisia’s nascent democracy. Saied has infringed on the fundamental freedoms of Tunisians and dismantled many of the constraints on his power. Here are some of the key mechanisms Saied has used to consolidate his authoritarian rule and prevent a free and fair election:
Another tool essential in Saied’s authoritarian turn has been his repression of free expression, which you can read more about in MEDC’s report by Justin Shilad.
The following individuals had their candidacies rejected by the ISIE, but Tunisia’s Administrative Court ruled that they should be included on the ballot. The ISIE refused to implement the court rulings, even though they are legally binding.
The following candidates sought to run for president but were either not approved to run by the ISIE or prevented from submitting their candidacies, while others chose to withdraw their candidacies in protest of a rigged process. This list of disqualified candidates is not exhaustive.
To compete in the October 6 presidential election, would-be candidates were required to register their candidacies with Tunisia’s electoral commission, the Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE), by August 6. The ISIE approved the candidacies of Ayachi Zammel and Zouhair Maghzaoui, but rejected the candidacies of fourteen other presidential hopefuls.
Seven presidential hopefuls appealed the ISIE’s decision to exclude their candidacies with the Administrative Court, the judicial body with oversight power over the ISIE. The Administrative Court ruled in favor of three candidates, Abdellatif Mekki, Imed Daimi, and Mondher Zenaidi, but the ISIE, in an unprecedented move, refused to implement the Administrative Court’s legally-binding rulings and excluded all three hopefuls from the ballot. In response to this electoral crisis, Tunisia’s parliament passed a law just nine days prior to the election removing ISIE decisions from the Administrative Court’s jurisdiction.
Even before the ISIE’s extraordinary decision, there were numerous reports of election violations and irregularities. As part of submitting their candidacies with the ISIE, presidential hopefuls were required to submit an official document certifying that the presidential hopeful has a clean criminal record. Potential candidates were also required to submit endorsement signatures from 10,000 citizens, as well as 10 signatures from either chamber of parliament or 40 signatures from presidents of government councils at the district, regional, or local levels. Tunisian authorities, however, repeatedly obstructed this process, including denying documents, confiscating some endorsement signature forms, and prosecuting candidates for alleged vote buying.
Worse still, numerous presidential hopefuls and their campaign supporters have faced police intimidation, judicial harassment, arrests, and prison sentences. Presidential candidate Ayachi Zammel was arrested after the ISIE approved his candidacy and is currently in prison, while prominent presidential hopefuls Lotfi Mraihi and Abir Moussi, are also serving prison sentences. Other opposition leaders who voiced an interest in running for president are also in prison, including Ghazi Chaouachi and Issam Chebbi. At least nine other presidential hopefuls have been arrested, sentenced, or are facing criminal investigations.
