Official results from Tunisia’s electoral commission (ISIE) show that the presidential elections held on the 15th of September will head to a second round. With no candidate scoring an outright majority of 50 per cent of the vote, a second round will be held between the top two candidates.
A law professor, Kais Saied, who ran as an independent candidate came out top with 18.4 per cent of the votes. Nabil Karoui, an imprisoned media mogul who owns an independent TV station, came in second place, receiving 15.6 per cent of the votes.
Both will advance to the second round of voting to be held before the 13th of October.
Political Outsiders
In a field of two dozen contenders, including some of the most prominent political figures in Tunisia, a little known law professor and a jailed media mogul came out on top.
This outcome has been described as a blow to the political establishment in the country and the two leading candidates have been tagged as political outsiders. Amy Hawthorne, Research director at the Project on Middle East Democracy shares this view in a tweet:
Saied, who is not affiliated with any political party, chose to campaign from house to house. His profile was so low that he was not on the radar of many analysts. Al Jazeera notes that he “advocates [for the] radical decentralisation of power, with local democracy and the ability to remove elected officials from office during their mandates.”
Karoui, on the other hand, was a member of former President Essebsi’s Nidaa Tounes party, before splitting with the party in 2017. He announced his candidacy under his newly formed Qalb Tounes party in July 2019. He has used his popular Nessma television station to advertise his charitable activities and build his populist appeal.
A Complication
Nabil Karoui has been in detention since the 23rd of August on suspicion of money laundering and tax evasion and his imprisonment presents a complication. If Karoui is found guilty before the second round, he will be disqualified and the third-place candidate will take part in the second round.
However, if he wins before the court reaches a verdict, it is unclear if he can assume office. As the New York Times notes, Tunisia does not have a constitutional court that “could rule on whether victory would grant him presidential immunity that would get him out of jail.”
The country now waits with bated breath for a new presidential election date to be announced, where the two candidates will face off in what will hopefully be the last round of elections in this cycle.
