Tunisians abroad head to polls in presidential elections

President Kais Saied will be facing Zouheir Maghzaoui and imprisoned Ayachi Zammel

An election banner for Tunisian president and candidate for re-election Kais Saied in Tunis ahead of the upcoming presidential elections. AP

Tunisians living abroad head to the polls on Friday to cast their votes in the country’s much-anticipated presidential elections.

The Independent High Authority for Elections said that more than 600,000 voters living abroad are expected to take part. More than nine million Tunisians, both in the country and abroad, are registered to vote, with 32 per cent of voters under the age of 35.

ISIE said it had created 10 subcommittees to supervise the overseas electoral process and manage the 331 polling stations in 58 countries.

In a statement to state-owned Tap news agency, a member of the elections authority Najla Abrougui said that 19 polling stations have been created, namely in the Quebec region in Canada, and, for the first time since 2011, in 10 new countries: Iraq, Syria, Libya, Brazil, Argentina, Iran, India, Burkina Faso, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Tunisians abroad will continue to vote for three days until Sunday, with the closure of the last polling station in the city of San Francisco in the US.

Incumbent president Kais Saied, who was elected in 2019 and has been ruling the country via presidential decree since he consolidated all branches of power in July 2021, is seeking a second term, with only two other candidates to face: Zouheir Maghzaoui of the pan-Arab nationalist People’s Movement and Ayachi Zammel of the Azimoun movement part.

Mr Zammel has been jailed after receiving a sentence of 13 years and 8 months over accusations of falsifying voters signatures endorsing his candidacy and other electoral crimes. The strongest opposition candidate has repeatedly denied these accusations.

Tunisia’s 2024 presidential elections, which is the third since a popular uprising toppled long-time president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, has come under much scrutiny and criticism due to a legal battle between the electoral authority, the parliament and the Administrative Court, which has been stripped of its oversight jurisdiction for these elections.

This power struggle between different state official bodies and continuing last-minute changes of both the electoral law and general rules of the entire process, has cast doubt over the credibility and transparency of these elections.