without real opponents, the outgoing Kaïs Saïed was clearly the winner

Preliminary official results are expected Monday afternoon.

A vote without suspense. Kaïs Saïed won the presidential election in Tunisia by a large margin on Sunday October 6. According to the results of the Sigma Conseil institute broadcast on national television, the outgoing president obtained 89.2% of the votes in the first round. The second candidate, Ayachi Zammel, a 47-year-old liberal industrialist, obtained only 6.9% of the vote. The third, a deputy from the pan-Arab left, Zouhair Maghzaoui, 59, won 3.9% of the vote. Preliminary official results are expected Monday afternoon.

Participation stood at 27.7%, compared to 45% five years ago in the first round, according to the electoral authority Isie. Its president, Farouk Bouasker, judged this rate “respectable”while it is the weakest for a first round of presidential voting since the overthrow of dictator Ben Ali in 2011.

After the polls were announced, around 400 supporters of the president came out to celebrate his victory, waving flags in front of the municipal theater in the center of Tunis, chanting “the people want Kaïs again”. A group cheerfully sang the national anthem. Oumayma Dhouib, 25, said to herself “very happy” of the victory of “Kaisoun”, his affectionate nickname. The young woman assured that she was “convinced by her ideas and her policies”, like his mother Khadija, 52 years old, who “trust”.

“The legitimacy of the election is necessarily tainted when the candidates who could overshadow Mr. Saïed were systematically excluded,” Tunisian political analyst Hatem Nafti commented for AFP. The candidate selection process had been highly contested for the high number of sponsorships required, the imprisonment of known potential candidates, and the ousting by Isie of the president’s strongest rivals, including Mondher Zenaidi, a former minister of Ben Ali.

Elected in 2019 with nearly 73% of the votes (and 58% participation), Kaïs Saïed was very popular when this specialist in constitutional law with the image of incorruptible seized full powers in the summer of 2021, promising order in the face of political instability. Three years later, many Tunisians criticize him for having devoted too much energy to settling scores with his opponents, in particular the Islamo-conservative Ennahdha party, dominant during the decade of democracy following the overthrow of dictator Ben Ali.

Speaking Sunday evening from his campaign headquarters, Kais Saied said, in a martial tone, wanting “continue the 2011 Revolution” and build “a country cleansed of corrupt people and conspiracies”. “Tunisia will remain free and independent and will never accept foreign interference”he added.