Tunisians protest poor governance as election campaigns get underway

TUNIS, Tunisia

Demonstrators took to the streets of Tunisia's capital on Saturday to protest against what they say is the deteriorating state of the country, as the presidential campaign season officially begins.

Samia Abbou, a former Tunisian assembly member who took part in the demonstration, said Saied has failed on many important fronts.

Her and other demonstrators slammed both Tunisia’s economic and political woes, carrying signs that grouped together the growing costs of staple items and growing concerns about civil liberties.

In 2011, longtime Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was toppled by nationwide protests that unleashed revolt across the Arab world.

More than a decade later, demonstrator Sghaier Zakraoui said he was worried about the growing number of political figures who’ve been thrown in jail under Saied and said he wants to ensure that there no more attacks on civil rights.

The protests capped off a week in which the North African country’s largest opposition party, Ennahda, said its senior members had been arrested en masse, at a scale not previously seen.

They come as Saied prepares to campaign for reelection on Oct. 6, when he will ask voters to grant him a second term.

When first elected in 2019, Saied used anti-corruption promises to win over people disillusioned with the political controversies that plagued Tunisia’s young democracy in the years that followed the Arab Spring.

Since taking office, the 66-year-old former law professor has gone to lengths to consolidate his own power, freezing the country’s parliament and rewriting the constitution. 

Throughout his tenure, authorities have arrested journalists, activists, civil society figures and political opponents across the ideological spectrum.

And though he promised to chart a new course for the country, its unemployment rate has steadily increased to one of the region’s highest at 16%, with young Tunisians hit particularly hard.