Tunisian youth wonder: Is the country ruled by a president under the age of fifty?

Mohamed Ali Latifi-Tunisia

In the second democratic presidential election since the January 2011 revolution, Tunisians aspire to be president of a candidate under the age of 50, especially since five presidents who have been over the age of 60 have ruled since independence or have ruled the country for life.

Five candidates under the age of 50, including a woman, include the current prime minister, Yahya Chahed, 44, and the Free Constitutional Party candidate, Abir Moussa. 44-year-old candidate, "New Home Movement" businessman Slim Riahi, 47.

The list also includes the candidate of the "Bloc Party" Elias Ffakhakh (47 years), independent candidate Hatem Boulbiar (48 years), and candidate for the "coalition of dignity" lawyer Seifeddine Makhlouf (44 years).

The highest average age for candidates described as high caliber candidates is recorded by the independent candidate, former Defense Minister Abdul Karim al-Zubaidi (69 years), the independent candidate and former Prime Minister Hamadi al-Jabali (70 years), and the former president of the country Moncef Marzouki (74 years). He is a candidate for the Popular Front coalition, Hama Hammami, 67, acting speaker of the House of Representatives and candidate of the Ennahda Movement, Abdel Fattah Moro, 71.

The rest of the candidates in the early Tunisian presidential race, which is rare in the Arab world, are limited to between fifty and sixty years.

Hopes are outstanding
In this scene, the young Tunisians who triggered the Jasmine Revolution and led the protest movements are living in a state of exclusion from the political scene and disappointment in the political class, after nine years of the revolution, where it is considered that the revolution created by turned the "elders" of the country.

Hisham Sammari, 39, a graduate with unemployed, says he is a victim of the former regime and successive governments as a result of 14 years of ongoing unemployment, as well as 500,000 unemployed according to statistics from the National Statistical Institute (Hukoomi). .

Khaled Touati, a 27-year-old senior technician, asked al-Jazeera Net why the Americans or French choose presidents like prime-time Barack Obama and Emmanuel Macron, while Tunisians cling to the sheikhs in power.

In their interviews with Al Jazeera Net, Tunisians are hoping that the Tunisians will grasp the lesson of the constitutional impasse caused by the death of the late President Beji Kaid Essebsi, 92, prompting the country to hold these extraordinary presidential elections ahead of their original date scheduled for October this year.

Revolutionary demand
Experts predict that the role of youth will grow in the horizon of the upcoming elections, while others go on to consider that the youth of the Jasmine Revolution seems frustrated today because of what they call deliberate exclusion from political life and the attempt by some quarters to benefit from a revolution they did not contribute to making.

According to political analyst Salaheddine Jourchi of Al Jazeera Net that the rejuvenation of the political class is a legitimate revolutionary demand reflects the spirit of the revolution, pointing out that the problem is not in the call to choose who is younger as much as the need to manage the stage and search for a president unites Tunisians, and be able to re Hope and economic solutions.

Jourchi adds that the attributes of the next president have not yet been clarified because of the lack of consensus among Tunisians, which created fluctuation in the positions of voters, expecting that young people will win in the next election.

For his part, said sociologist Sami Nasr in an interview with the island Net that the disappointment of young people in the political class after the revolution generated a state of frustration and despair and generated a tendency to retaliate amounted to suicide.

Nasr categorized the elections into three types: rational and viable elections.This strand adheres to a program and criteria of voting determined by reason, and retaliatory elections based on the demonization of the other.This is prevalent in Tunisia after the revolution, and emotional elections using wooden and popular language.

Historical overview
Habib Bourguiba was the first president to rule the Tunisian Republic after independence in 1957.He was 54 years old.He remained in power for thirty years (1957-1987), and later appointed himself president for life.He left the government only at the age of 84 years. He was overthrown in the November 7, 1987 coup by his prime minister, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, before he appointed himself president.

Ben Ali was sentenced at the age of 51 to a 24-year rule before his regime was overthrown at the age of 73 on 14 January 2011 during the Tunisian revolution that began on December 17, 2010.Then Mohamed Ghannouchi was appointed Prime Minister as Qaim. Acting on a temporary basis at the age of 69 years.

President Fouad Mebazaa, 78, was appointed by the Constitutional Council to represent the president on January 15, 2011. Former President Moncef Marzouki, then 66, was elected president by the National Constituent Assembly on 12 December 2011, making The first president who is not a member of the ruling party.

The late President Beji Kaid Essebsi, 92, was the first president elected by universal suffrage after the revolution on December 21, 2014, until his death on July 25, 2019.