Tunisia’s Kais Saied Wins Presidential Election

Kais Saied, Tunisia's President, has won a second term by securing 90.69% of the votes in the presidential election. The Independent High Authority for Elections of Tunisia (ISIE) announced that Saied's closest challenger, businessman Ayachi Zammel, managed to get only 7.4% of the vote. Meanwhile, the turnout was just 28.8% in Sunday's vote, which is the lowest since the 2011 revolution.

Kais Saied, in power since 2019, ran against two rivals, including ally-turned-critic and Chaab Party leader Zouhair Maghzaoui and Ayachi Zammel. According to ISIE, Zouhair Maghzaoui received only 1.97% of the votes. This is the country's third presidential election since Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was overthrown in 2011.

“We will build and will cleanse the country of the corrupt, traitors and conspirators,” Saied told state television earlier on Monday while celebrating his presumed victory. According to The Guardian report, the north African country’s election commission had disqualified more than a dozen candidates before the election, leaving the trio to battle it out at the polls.