Kais Saied set to win Tunisia presidential election: Exit poll

Tunisian President Kais Saied is on course to win the presidential election with 89.2 percent of the vote, according to an exit poll aired on state TV, solidifying Saied’s rule after a power grab three years ago.

The Independent High Authority for Elections of Tunisia (ISIE) will announce the official results of the election on Monday evening.

Saied, 66, was running against two rivals, including his former ally turned critic Chaab Party leader Zouhair Maghzaoui, and Ayachi Zammel, a businessman who was seen as posing a big threat to Saied’s re-election until he was jailed last month.

According to the exit poll, Maghzaoui, 59, got 3.9 percent of the vote and 47-year-old Zammel, 6.9 percent.

The ISIE said voter turnout stood at 27.7 percent in Sunday’s vote. The board’s spokesman, Mohamed Tlili Mansri, said earlier that they were expecting it to be about 30 percent.

Jailed opposition figures include Rached Ghannouchi, the head of the opposition Ennahda party, which dominated politics after the 2011 “Arab Spring” protests to oust President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

According to rights groups, since 2019, when Saied was elected, the president has undone democratic gains for the country that were secured through the revolution.

Saied has rejected the criticism, arguing that his actions were to fight a “corrupt elite” and “traitors”.