Incumbent Kais Saied set to win Tunisia vote with 89pc: exit polls

TUNIS: Tunisia´s incumbent President Kais Saied is set to win the country´s presidential election with 89.2 percent support, according to exit polls broadcast on national television Sunday after polls closed.

Saied, 66, is expected to win by a landslide with his challengers Ayachi Zemmal set to collect 6.9 percent and Zouhair Maghzaoui 3.9 percent of the vote, independent polling group Sigma Conseil said.

Tunisians voted on Sunday in an election in which President Kais Saied is seeking a second term, with his main rival suddenly jailed last month and most opponents imprisoned or barred from running.

Sunday’s election pits Saied against two rivals: his former ally turned critic, Chaab Party leader Zouhair Maghzaoui, and Ayachi Zammel, who had been seen as posing a big threat to Saied until he was jailed last month.

Turnout stood at 27.7 percent, the election commission said after the close of polls - just half what it was in the runoff round of the 2019 presidential election.

Official results are not expected until Monday evening but an exit poll showed Saied in the lead with 89.2 percent of votes, according to state television.

If the results are confirmed, there will be no runoff vote.

Tunisia had for years been hailed as the only relative success story of the 2011 “Arab spring” uprisings for introducing a competitive, though flawed, democracy following decades of autocratic rule.

However, rights groups now say Saied, in power since 2019, has undone many of those democratic gains while removing institutional and legal checks on his power. Saied, 66, has rejected criticism of his actions, saying he is fighting a corrupt elite and traitors, and that he will not be a dictator.

Senior figures from the biggest parties, which largely oppose Saied, have been imprisoned on various charges over the past year and those parties have not publicly backed any of the three candidates on Sunday’s ballot. Other opponents have been barred from running.

“The scene is shameful. Journalists and opponents in prison, including one presidential candidate. But I will vote for change,” said Wael, a bank employee in Tunis, who gave only his first name.