three days before the presidential election, an opposition reduced to silence

Three days before the presidential election, it is difficult to find a sign of the ongoing campaign in the streets of Tunis. No poster or debate on television, a heavy weight hangs over the election. Many Tunisians are worried and disillusioned. At the center of this tense climate, the Tunisian president, Kaïs Saïed, is accused of having dismissed all his competitors one by one.

Of the six candidates validated by the courts, the electoral commission, close to the president, refused three, and another, Ayachi Zammel, was sent to prison. He is accused of providing false sponsorships and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. For his lawyer, Abdessatar Messaoudi, Ayachi Zammel had become the man to be killed by those in power. “Almost every week, you have two or three cases which are of a political nature and coloring.

For part of the opposition, Tunisia today is almost in a state of dictatorship. In 2019, however, during his election, Kaïs Saïed carried the hopes of Tunisians. Two years later, he froze parliament and took full powers, before dissolving the higher council of the judiciary and introducing a decree reducing freedom of expression. Several dozen activists and journalists were then put in prison.

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