2024-10-04 18:26:38
Hundreds of demonstrators demonstrated on Friday 4 October in Tunisia to denounce “freedoms trampled upon” in the cradle of the Arab Spring after the coup of President Kais Saied, who on Sunday will seek a new five-year mandate.
“Neither fear nor terror, the power is in the hands of the people”shouted the demonstrators, of whom around 800 marched on Tunis’ main avenue, according to journalists from Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Tunisia is preparing to choose its new president on Sunday in a tense climate for a civil society that denounces growing attacks on rights and freedoms since Saied, democratically elected in 2019, took full power in summer 2021.
Since the spring of 2023, dozens of opponents, including prominent figures, have been arrested on serious charges of “plot against state security”.
“The road is still active”
Trade unionists, lawyers and political commentators are also jailed under a controversial law “fake news”. The associations also complain about increased controls on the foreign funding they receive.
Selon Human Rights Watch, “more than 170 people are currently detained for political reasons or for exercising their fundamental rights”. “The streets are still active to denounce attacks on freedoms and human rights two days before the elections”underlined Bassem Trifi, president of the Tunisian League for Human Rights (LTDH). “We came out to denounce the violation of freedoms, of democracy, of the conquests of the Revolution, in particular of freedom of expression and freedom of associative work”he added.
In a show of force, police mobilized riot units and water trucks to guard the march.
The protesters, including many young human rights activists and artists, called for a boycott of the presidential elections “masquerade” Sunday. For Leila Chebbi, actress, “Kais Saïed trampled on freedoms”. “I boycott elections that break the law and are not legitimate”.
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The protesters called President Saied a “pharaoh manipulator of the law” after a candidate selection process – initially just three out of 17 – criticized for the difficulty of obtaining sponsorship, the imprisonment of potential candidates and the ousting of other serious contenders.
“Country of repression and dictatorship”, “Election celebration transformed into a coup d’état”we could read on the demonstration signs. “Freedom, freedom”many have asked “fall of the regime”the leading slogan of the popular uprising and the Revolution that overthrew the dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.
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