Conservative academic Kais Saïd, a presidential candidate in Tunisia, said Sunday (September 15th) that polls taken out of the polls gave him the lead in the first round. No official results have yet been released but polls, conducted by the Tunisian institutes Sigma Council and Emrhod, award Kais Saïed 19% of the vote, and about 15% to Nabil Karoui, a businessman imprisoned since 23 August for tax evasion and money laundering.
Nabil Karoui's spokesman said his candidate would also be present in the second round on 13 October.
"My victory carries a great responsibility to turn frustration into hope, it's a new stage in the history of Tunisia, it's like a new revolution," said Kais Saïed, a law professor, unknown until beginning of the presidential campaign, at the microphone of Radio Mosaïque.
Many analysts expected to see Kais Saeed marginalized because of the limited resources mobilized around his candidacy. His campaign, low-cost, has not given rise to any meeting - on the other hand he has crisscrossed a hundred cities, shaking hands in the markets or cafes, with a placidity foolproof.
"I am an independent candidate, I do not represent any of the parties," he said on Shems FM radio. "I'm doing my own thing, and I refuse any help, even a thousandth."
A conservative "Robocop"
Nicknamed "Robocop" by some because of his diction, this jurist adept of a rigorous literary Arabic is known for his conservative stance. "This specialist in constitutional law who speaks in a literary Arabic, slice with the other candidates in the running in this presidential election.It has really emerged as an anti-system candidate," says Karim Yahiaoui, France 24's special correspondent in Tunisia. And his stances, especially on homosexuality or the death penalty, sparked important debates during the campaign.
Regularly surrounded by young people, students or active, this father of three defends socially conservative positions. According to the comparison of the Observatory for the defense of the right to the difference, which classified the candidates according to their positions on individual freedoms, it is one of the most conservative: it is against the abolition of the death penalty, against the repeal of texts punishing homosexuality and indecent assault - this last text used to condemn unmarried couples kissing in the street.
He also made a clear stand against inheritance equality, a sensitive issue because it touches on a principle dictated by the Koran, according to which a woman inherits more often than half a man of the same degree of kinship .
During a debate Thursday evening on the Hiwar Ettounsi channel, the candidate was confronted with a photo of him drinking coffee with an ex-cadre of the banned Salafist movement Hizb-ut-Tahrir, Ridha Belhaj. He indicated that as a candidate he had the right to meet everyone. "Do I have to ask permission to meet someone?" After all, I did not meet an outlaw, "he replied on Shems FM radio.
With AFP