a lot of discontent, a little fear and little hope

Next to it, activists from Free Constitutional Partythey shouted for the release of their president Abir Moussisentenced in August to two years in prison for the same reason, for “dissemination of false information”. Indeed, Moussi had criticized the legislative elections organized in 2023, we explain from the training. In short, little by little, the president got rid of the opposition candidates.

The last opponent to enter prison is Ayachi Zammel, founder of Azimoun Movement. The 47-year-old politician and businessman had been in temporary prison since the beginning of September. On the 25th of the same month, the Ministry of Justice sentenced him to six months in prison, and a week before, another court sentenced him to one year. and eight months in prison for “falsification of sponsorship”necessary for the registration of applications.

Finally, on September 30, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. At his party’s headquarters, campaign spokesperson Ramzi Jebabli explained to EL ESPAÑOL “that he was strong” and that “they will continue to move forward” despite adversities. “Kais Saied probably won the elections and it will be deplorable because he governs without the Tunisian people, his record is negative. I sincerely hope that Tunisians will vote massively to end this era,” he said. .

There is a law prior to the mandate of Kais Saied which forbidden candidates to make statements to foreign journalists. Regardless, the two opposition parties that managed to reach the end of the electoral campaign called press conferences on Friday to explain the situation to local media. During this meeting, Zouhair Maghzaoui, leader of the party Popular movementthe only opponent of the president who remains free, described the country as a “republic of fear”.

“The economic situation in the country is terrible. Inflation is around 9%, with a GDP of 0.2%, the unemployment rate is 15%, there is no engine that encourages growth” , Mohamed Msilni, MP, explained to EL ESPAÑOL. of the party. This means that currently a bottle of olive oil costs 33 dinars (around 10 euros) while ten years ago the same product was sold for a little more than 6 dinars (not even 3 euros), or five times less. This is a big difference, especially considering the interprofessional minimum wage, which does not reach 500 dinars (around 150 euros).

The Tunisian Network of Rights and Freedoms, recently created by left-wing parties and civil society associations, called for Friday’s demonstration to demand that the president restore democratic freedoms, release those imprisoned, end repression social and organizes free and transparent elections.

There is no hope for change, but the desire for revolution is palpable in the streets. Although the demonstration was not supported by the population out of fear or boredom, the songs and demands for freedom carried the 2011 revolution against Ben Ali.

“Pharaoh’s proxy,” the posters chided, Kais Saied “don’t change the law, you don’t have permission” because just nine days before the elections he had changed the electoral law. Despite what he himself assured during the 2019 elections which brought him to power: “We cannot change the electoral law four months before the elections! Demonstration (…) This is an attack on the Republic“.

These slogans reflected widespread discontent with the authoritarian repression of this regime. “It was he who sold the country” or “Down with the torture of the police, down with the coercion of the people”, chanted the demonstrators. In fact, some relatives of detainees have reported poor conditions of detention in prisons. In the case of lawyer Sonia Dhamani who denounced “a carceral state” on French television and was imprisoned, “it’s strong, but They forced her to cut her hairthey put her in a cell full of rats and cockroaches, she is deprived of visitors, she can only receive her parents,” lamented her cousin.

The arrest of the lawyer, as this newspaper reported at the time, was based on the famous decree 54 on cybercrime promulgated by President Kais Saied in September 2022, which punishes Tunisians who broadcast with five years in prison. “false information and rumors”. Internet. Several women from Dhamani’s family attended the demonstration against Kais Saied in central Tunisia this Friday which closed the electoral campaign.

Currently, the last to suffer reprisals, after politicians, activists and journalists, are human rights defenders. In the offices of associations that have worked with civil society for decades, fear and uncertainty reign. Some prefer not to speak to the press or to do so “unofficially”, because they admit that they do not know how long they can last without their association being closed, as has already happened with several anti-racist organizations.

“Tunisia is not a safe place because yesterday (Thursday) they also summoned an activist from the Tunisian Association for Equal Rights. LGBTI people appear before the police on October 10,” revealed to this media an activist who prefers to remain anonymous.

No suspense

The electoral campaign was almost non-existent, which is why human rights associations consider these elections as an “endorsement of Kais Saied’s power”. Ultimately, only three candidates are in the running because Kais Saied also unilaterally elects the members of the body responsible for organizing the elections since 2011, the Independent higher body for elections (ISIE).

So much so that this institution only approved three candidates for the elections, including that of the president. Even though some of the rejected candidates challenged the decision before the administrative court, which until now had exclusive jurisdiction over electoral candidacies, and won their case, the ISIE rejected the court’s decision on September 1. Thus, civil society accuses the institution of lack of neutrality, of lack of impartiality.

Nearly ten million voters are authorized to vote in 9,700 polling stations spread across 5,017 centers. “Today, the most important factor will be participation. The opposition’s response has no importance,” reflects Spanish philosopher and writer Santiago Alba, who has lived in Tunisia for two decades.

All those consulted agree that victory will go to Kais Saied, in part because of his populist policies. Populism as a form of secularized religion. “They believe in him (Kais Saied) as if they believed in a prophet. Because he arrived in 2019 and he was not a politician, that’s all. He never made a He spoke a populist language in the sense that we have to go back.” to the fundamentals. It’s a bit of an idealization of the social group of the nation, but in a, let’s say, idealistic form. We idealize unity, we idealize the purity of the group and therefore we are against everything that is a mixture,” explained Sami Ben Abderrahmane, retired judge, in an interview with EL ESPAÑOL.

Many young people voted for Kais Saied in 2019 because he was a law professor in solidarity with the Revolution and participant in the Arab Spring protests. However, the professor, political activist and feminist Dhouha Kallali now affirms that “Kais Saied worked with Ben Aliis one of those who worked on Ben Ali’s Constitution and who thought he would become president with Ben Ali’s disappearance.

He devoted years to his personal project of becoming president. The problem is that this is not a project for Tunisia, it is for its personal interests. » Her words make the hair stand on end to anyone who hears her explain that she also came out in 2011 to protest against Ben Ali, and that “the situation is going to be worse. » “What will happen on Monday?” What are you going to do in the next five years?
young, “It’ll destroy the rest of what’s left.”he laments.

Many citizens will not go to the polls and others will vote blank. Of course, the low abstention benefits Kais Saied, which is why the opponents mobilized the vote as a priority. Hamdubi, business manager, perfectly dressed and matching tie, was one of the first citizens to arrive at Le Passage, where the demonstration started on Friday.

“I am here against the presidential decree and for the people who are in prison. I am not voting for there are no other candidatesbecause the president has already done everything not to have rivals. “I’m not going to vote because these are Kais Saied’s elections,” he said.