The first official results, published Monday (September 16th), confirm the advance made by Kais Saïed after the first round of presidential elections in Tunisia, which did not mobilize the electorate.
Kais Saeed, a 61-year-old austere constitutional expert, topped the first round with 18.9 percent of the vote, according to polls on more than a quarter of the vote, the Tunisian electoral commission (Isie) said.
He is ahead of the imprisoned businessman Nabil Karoui (15% of votes according to this partial count), neck to neck with Abdelfattah Mourou, candidate of the Islamist party Ennahdha (13.1% of the vote). According to the partial results given by Isie, the Minister of Defense Abdelkarim Zbidi comes in 4th position with 9.9% of the vote and the Prime Minister Youssef Chahed 5th with 7.2% of the vote. A stinging defeat for candidates of the liberal family "centrist" from the party of former President Beji Caid Essebsi, who died in July.
Towards a possible unprecedented situation
If these results of Sunday's election are confirmed, Kais Saïed and Nabil Karoui, currently incarcerated for tax evasion, will meet face to face in the second round on 13 October.
As a connoisseur of the Constitution, Kais Saïed became known as a political commentator and cultivated an image of "Mr. Clean" incorruptible and above the fray. Nicknamed "Robocop" because of his attitude and his rigid diction, he has multiplied field trips for his first election campaign.
Nabil Karoui is from the Tunisian establishment, but he saw his image of "antisystem" strengthened after his imprisonment in late August, as part of a survey for money laundering and tax evasion. This 56-year-old businessman has built his popularity in recent years by organizing charitable operations in disadvantaged areas of the country, and he has behind him the power of a private channel, Nessma, of which he is the founder.
If his presence for the second round is confirmed and he remains in prison, Tunisia will be in a situation almost unprecedented in the world. "The electoral law has foreseen several cases like the illness or the death of a candidate, but not the prison." As long as the justice has not pronounced on Karoui's case, nothing will change during this second round. to this candidate, "said the head of Isie, Adil Brinsi.
But "if he is sentenced between the first and second round, it will effectively happen without him, and hold a second round with the candidate came in 3rd position," he added.
Seven million voters were called on Sunday to decide between 26 candidates for the first round of this election, which took place against a background of serious economic and social crisis, and in a context of rejection of traditional political elites.
Participation was about 45% according to still provisional figures of Isie, a low rate compared to the 64% recorded in the first round of the presidential election of 2014.
With AFP and Reuters