2024 Tunisian presidential election|
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| Turnout | 28.80% ( 20.18pp) |
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Presidential elections were held in Tunisia on 6 October 2024.[1] They were the first presidential elections since the promulgation of the 2022 constitution and were boycotted by most parties. After rejecting several candidacies, including those of the main opponents of incumbent president Kais Saied, the Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE) confirmed the candidacies of only three candidates; Saied and former deputies Zouhair Maghzaoui and Ayachi Zammel, rejecting those of Mondher Zenaidi, Abdellatif Mekki and Imed Daimi, who had been reinstated by the Administrative Court. This decision was contrary to the constitution, which stipulates that the decisions of the Administrative Court cannot be appealed.[citation needed]
On 14 September the Administrative Court ordered the ISIE to accept the candidacies, which the latter refused, before the Assembly of the Representatives of the People, fearing that the latter would invalidate the elections, transferred, by a controversial amendment to the electoral law, the powers of the Administrative Court to the Court of Appeal of Tunis. A few weeks before the election, Ayachi Zammel, who had obtained the support of part of the opposition, was imprisoned and then sentenced to a total of thirteen years and eight months in prison in three trials for accusations of false sponsorship. The sentences against him were interpreted by several observers and non-governmental organizations as judicial harassment aimed at eliminating his candidacy. Similarly, the sidelining or imprisonment of other candidates were also denounced. Saied won with 91% of the vote, with a voter turnout of just under 29%, the lowest since the Tunisian revolution. He was inaugurated for a second term as president on 21 October.[2]
20.18pp)
