On Sunday, Tunisia witnessed controversial presidential elections, with three candidates competing, one of whom is imprisoned, and preliminary results are expected to be announced on Monday evening. While opinion polls indicate that President Kais Saied won the elections, his rivals objected to the preliminary results of the presidential elections.
In turn, the Independent High Authority for Elections in Tunisia announced that the participation rate in the presidential elections that took place on Sunday reached 27.7 percent, compared to 45 percent in the first round of the 2019 elections, and 55 percent in the rerun of the presidential elections in 2019.
This is “the lowest participation rate in the presidential elections since the 2011 revolution in the country that was considered the cradle of the so-called “Arab Spring,” according to what Agence France-Presse reported.
Preliminary results are expected to be announced on Monday evening. Tunisian state television said that an opinion poll showed that President Kais Saied won the elections, and that he won more than 89 percent of the votes.
On Sunday, Tunisians cast their votes to elect a new president from among 3 candidates led by outgoing President Kais Saied, following an election campaign lacking enthusiasm due to economic difficulties.
Saeed (66 years old) is competing with former MP Zuhair Al-Maghzawi (59 years old), and Al-Ayashi Zamal, a businessman who invests in the agricultural field and a 47-year-old engineer who is imprisoned on charges of “forging” endorsement signatures.
After 5 years of rule, Saied is subjected to severe criticism from opponents and civil society organizations. Because he devoted a lot of effort and time to settling scores with his opponents, especially the conservative Islamist Ennahda Party, which dominated political life during the 10 years of democratic transition that followed the overthrow of President Ben Ali in 2011.
On the other hand, the presidential election candidate, head of the People’s Movement, Zuhair Al-Maghzaoui, criticized the results of the preliminary poll estimates that indicated an overwhelming victory for the current president, Kais Saied.
The campaign of candidate Ayachi Zammal expressed, in a statement, on Sunday evening, his categorical rejection of the preliminary estimates of the results of voting in the presidential elections inside Tunisia, presented by the director of the opinion polling institution “Sigma Conseil,” Hassan Zarqouni.
The campaign stressed in its statement that it is “awaiting the priority results, and is fully confident that Zammal will pass to the second round.”
The Ayachi Zamal campaign added that “Sigma Conseil” is an unofficial private institution, and by publishing “alleged estimates of the results of the presidential elections” it has exceeded the provisions of the law in order to “direct public opinion towards accepting certain results.”
In turn, candidate Zuhair Al-Maghzawi, in a statement to Radio Mosaique, criticized the results, considering them “an attempt to prepare public opinion to accept the results that may be announced tomorrow.”
Zuhair Al-Maghzawi stressed that “the indicators available to them are completely different from what Sigma Konsai announced,” saying: “We are confident that the results that the Independent High Electoral Commission will announce tomorrow, Monday, will be different.”
Last updated: October 7, 2024 – 11:02
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2024-10-08 22:22:25