Elections will be held in Tunisia at the beginning of October. The government is cracking down on opponents. According to human rights activists, several people have been arrested.
According to human rights activists, the Tunisian authorities have arrested dozens of opposition members. The human rights organization Amnesty International said that 97 of them were members of the moderate Islamist Ennahda party. They were being investigated for “conspiracy,” it said. The arrests took place last Thursday and Friday.
Before the presidential election, the Tunisian authorities carried out a “clear attack on the pillars of human rights and the rule of law,” criticized Secretary General Agnès Callamard. This was a “blatant step backwards in human rights.” Amnesty International called on the Tunisian authorities to immediately release all those “imprisoned solely for the peaceful exercise of their human rights.”
The election in the Mediterranean country is scheduled to take place on October 6. More than a dozen possible candidates for the highest office have been sentenced in advance, some of them to prison terms. Others have been banned from running for public office. Ennahda party leader Rached Ghannouchi is already in prison. In addition to incumbent Kais Saied, only two other candidates are allowed to run in the election, one of whom has also been arrested.
Saied came to office in 2019 and has gradually expanded his power since 2021, including by dissolving parliament and drafting a controversial new constitution. Observers have increasing doubts that the election can be held freely and fairly. Critics accuse Saied of leading the country into an autocracy.
Source: Stern
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