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Media mogul, academic face off as Tunisians choose president
TUNIS, Oct 13, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Tunisians voted on Sunday in a presidential
runoff pitting a conservative academic against a media magnate fresh out of
jail, reflecting a shift in the country’s post-revolution political
landscape.
The political newcomers swept aside the old guard in the first round,
highlighting voter anger over a stagnant economy, high unemployment and poor
public services in the cradle of the Arab Spring.
Adding controversy and suspense to the contest, presidential contender
Nabil Karoui only walked free on Wednesday, having spent more than a month
behind bars on suspicion of money-laundering.
This election is “more exciting than a local derby (football match),” said
a young man taking part in lively debate on Bourguiba Avenue in central Tunis
ahead of the showdown.
The vote, Tunisia’s second free presidential election since the 2011
revolt, follows the death of president Beji Caid Essebsi in July.
Polling stations opened to the electorate of seven million at 8:00 am
(0700 GMT) and are due to close at 6:00 pm. Exit polls are expected by Sunday
evening.
“Here’s to this derby ending in Tunisia’s favour,” said Najoua Nahali, 53,
holding up her ink-stained finger after voting in central Tunis.
On Friday night, Karoui and law professor Kais Saied went head-to-head in a
rare television debate, a last bid to woo voters.
Karoui, a 56-year-old business tycoon, appeared relaxed, if at times
hesitant. Speaking in Tunisian dialect, he stuck to his key themes of
economic liberalisation and fighting poverty.
Serious but also at ease, 61-year-old independent candidate Saied called
for the decentralisation of power and criticised the country’s partisan
system, in classical Arabic.
The runoff outcome remains uncertain, with a ban on opinion polls, but
Karoui received a boost with his newly formed party, Qalb Tounes (Heart of
Tunis), coming second in legislative elections a week earlier.
Saied topped the first round in the presidential election, held on
September 15, with 18.4 percent of votes, while Karoui followed with 15.6
percent. Turnout for that round was a modest 45 percent.
“Rendezvous with history”, headlined Tunisia’s La Presse newspaper on
Sunday, while French language daily Le Temps said absent voters “will be in
the wrong”.
Earlier, Tunisians had blamed the political class for not responding to
their economic woes but the electoral commission is hoping for a higher
turnout for this atypical duel.
– Sharp contrast –
While the candidates are both seen as anti-establishment figures, the
contrast between them is sharp, with Saied nicknamed “Robocop” for his rigid
and austere manner.
A social conservative, he has defended the death penalty, criminalisation
of homosexuality and a sexual assault law that punishes unmarried couples who
engage in public displays of affection.
Saied is an expert on constitutional law, who taught at the Tunis faculty
of judicial and political sciences for nearly two decades.
He launched an unorthodox election campaign that saw him shun mass rallies
and instead canvass door-to-door.
Karoui presents himself as a candidate for the poor but spent most of his
campaign imprisoned on money-laundering and tax-evasion charges. He was
released on his fourth appeal in court after threatening to contest the
results.
The appeal of flamboyant Karoui, who always appears in designer suits,
stems largely from his media empire and philanthropic activity.
A former executive for Colgate-Palmolive, in 2002 Karoui launched a media
agency with his brother.
After the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben
Ali, the Nessma TV channel that Karoui founded turned from entertainment
programming towards news, becoming one of Tunisia’s largest private
broadcasters.
Over the past three years, Karoui burnished his reputation with a charity
show on Nessma in which he distributed household appliances to needy
families.
His arrest in the run-up to the election cemented his status as an
outsider — despite being a longtime key supporter of Essebsi, whose death on
July 25 brought forward the polls.
Karoui, who says the allegations against him are politically motivated,
campaigned by proxy through his wife and party.
Although now a free man, Karoui is still under investigation for fraud and
banned from travelling abroad.
But if he wins the runoff, Karoui will receive immunity “and all the legal
proceedings against him… will be suspended until the end of his mandate”,
constitutional law professor Salsabil Klibi told AFP.
BSS/AFP/RY/1650 hrs