Tunisians protest against President Kais Saied before October 6 election

Crowds of Tunisians took to the streets once again to voice their discontent with President Kais Saied, as the country’s October 6 presidential election draws closer. They accuse Saied of limiting the number of opponents who can run against him.

One protester, Mustapha Ben Ali, said, “we came to protest to say that the president of the republic, who won five years of governance, does not want these elections to be fair now that his term has ended.”

Among the crowd were many young people, some of whom are refusing to vote on Sunday. “No, absolutely no, I won’t vote. Because first of all, there is no one in the candidates that I can vote for, but also what happened in the electoral process, it doesn’t have any guarantees for a transparent and free election,” said Siwar Gmati, aged 27.

Tunisia's electoral commission, appointed by Saied, has only approved two other candidates to run against him. In August, Human Rights Watch said authorities had ruled out several other potential candidates from running in the election through prosecution and imprisonment.

Since he came to power in 2019, Saied has suspended parliament, and pushed through a new constitution to reinforce his own power.

His administration has clamped down on perceived opponents, arresting lawyers, journalists and activists.