 "Supporters of Tunisian President and candidate for re-election Kais Saied celebrate after announcement of provisional results of presidential elections. AP")
The newly re-elected President of Tunisia, Kais Saied, considered himself to be on a revolutionary divine mission.
Saied won a landslide victory on Monday (October 7) for the second time after coming to power in 2019.
Although his critics accuse him of bringing a new authoritarian regime in Tunisia, Saied’s popularity among the masses cannot be overlooked. He received 90.7 per cent of the vote share during this election, informed news agency Associated Press quoting Tunisia’s Independent High Authority for Elections.
“We’re going to cleanse the country of all the corrupt and schemers,” the 66-year-old populist said in a speech at campaign headquarters. He has pledged to defend Tunisia against threats foreign and domestic.
Saied’s call to vote in massive numbers
Last week, the president called on Tunisians to ‘vote massively’ to usher in what he called an era of ‘reconstruction’. Citing “a long war against conspiratorial forces linked to foreign circles”, he accused them of “infiltrating many public services and disrupting hundreds of projects” under his tenure.
Within three years, the 66-year-old has sacked three prime ministers. “The president does not believe in the role of intermediaries between the people and himself,” said Romdhane Ben Amor, spokesman for the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights (FTDES).
From day one, Saied pledged to right Tunisia’s political and economic wrongs after the nation ousted longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011. Five years into his term, rights group Amnesty International has denounced “a worrying decline in fundamental rights in the birthplace of the Arab Spring”, the regional uprisings against authoritarian rule that began in 2011 in Tunisia.
A constitutional law professor, Saied became prominent in 2011 during television appearances expounding on his area of expertise. He built his 2019 campaign on the motto “the people want” – echoing slogans used during the revolution against Ben Ali – and won his first term democratically in a landslide with 73 percent of the vote.
Leader or dictator?
After coming to power in 2019, Saied began consolidating his power and staged a sweeping power grab, dismissing parliament in 2021. A year later, he consolidated power by rewriting the constitution, enshrining a one-man rule which, to many critics, raises similarities to the regimes of Ben Ali and his predecessor, Habib Bourguiba, Tunisia’s first president in 1957.
But for Saied, the country of 12 million has yet to reach its heyday. He has defiantly accused international institutions and organisations of interference, while alleging that local rights groups receive “huge sums of money” from abroad, intended to undermine the country.
In 2023, Saied rejected “foreign diktats” from the International Monetary Fund over a bailout for the heavily indebted economy. Saied said the measures would only “lead to more poverty”. Instead, he called for revival of the country’s phosphates industry.
Saied’s early life
Internationally, Saied has maintained a close relationship with neighbouring Algeria, a key supporter providing cheaper energy and financial credits. A proponent of Pan-Arabism, he stands with the Palestinians and has strengthened ties with Iran, Russia and China.
But Tunisia remains a strategic regional partner for the United States and France — its main financial supporters and arms suppliers. Born in 1958 in Beni Khiar, near eastern Tunisia’s Nabeul, Saied grew up in a middle-class family.
He holds conservative views on social issues, particularly on homosexuality, and is married to magistrate Ichraf Chebil with whom he has two daughters and a son. Saied is a classical Arabic music aficionado and a calligraphy amateur, often handwriting speeches and letters with ink and dip pens.
He has presided over a wave of arrests targeting the political opposition and other critics. But he also has his supporters. In Ariana in the northern suburbs of Tunis, 45-year-old mechanic Slah Assali remembers Saied as a “kind and decent” customer.
“A newspaper in hand and a cup of coffee, he would sometimes sit and chat with us at the shop,” he told AFP. “He would explain political events in the country.”
Assali, echoing Saied’s own talking points, said he would vote for Saied again because he is “serious and hard-working yet often hindered by hidden hands”.
Imed Mehimdi, a waiter at a cafe in Ariana, described Saied as modest and kind. “He has put the country back on track,” he said. “He saved Tunisia in the face of many disasters” and “fought corruption”.
With inputs from AFP