Tunisia: Saied Schedules Elections for October 6, 2024

Presidential elections will be held in Tunisia on October 6, 2024. This is what the current head of state, Kais Saied, whose mandate began in 2019, has established. “On July 2, 2024, the president of the republic, Kais Saied, issued a decree by which he summons voters to the presidential election on Sunday, October 6, 2024,” the Tunisian presidential statement explained.

Saied, 66, democratically elected in 2019, gave himself full constitutional powers on July 25, 2021, recalling members of the government and dissolving parliament. At this time, he has not stated whether he will run again.

Meanwhile, a referendum held in the summer of 2022 adopted the new constitution that established a new bicameral system: Assembly of People’s Representatives (APR) and the National Council of Regions and Districts, moving from a parliamentary system to a “strongly identified” presidential system.

According to the March 2023 Tunisiameters poll, cited by Italian state television RAI, Saied will lead in any case in voting intentions with 23.9%, followed by a number of possible candidates who have already run in 2019, such as journalist Safi Saïd, who will have 11.2% of the vote, former minister Mondher Zenaidi with 7.1%, the founder of the Popular Republican Union party Lotfi Mraihi with 6.8%, and Abir Moussi (leader of the Free Destouri Party) who is among the most ardent opponents of Saied, was arrested in October 2023 and, according to the poll, will have 3.8% of the vote.