Tunisia's Saied set for election win as supporters celebrate

Supporters of current Tunisian President Kais Saied began celebrations in the capital on Sunday night after an exit poll broadcast on state television showed him winning, beating two rivals, one of whom is now in prison.

On Sunday, Saied faced two election rivals: his former ally turned critic, Chaab Party leader Zouhair Maghzaoui, and Ayachi Zammel, who was jailed last month.

Turnout stood at 27.7 per cent, the election commission said after the close of polls - just half what it was in the runoff round of the 2019 presidential election.

Official results are not expected until Monday evening but an exit poll by Sigma company, a polling agency, showed Saied in the lead with 89.2 per cent of votes, according to state television.

In his first comment, Saied told state television, "This is a continuation of the revolution. We will build and will cleanse the country of the corrupt, traitors and conspirators."

Zammel and Maghzaoui's campaigns rejected the exit poll results saying the real results will be different.

On the main avenue of Habib Bourguiba in the capital city of Tunis, celebrants raised pictures of Saied and the Tunisian flag, chanting “The people want to build and develop".

"We rejoice for a person because he served the state and not for his own benefit, he serves for the benefit of the people and the state", Mohsen Ibrahim said when he was celebrating.

Tunisia had for years been hailed as the only relative success story of the 2011 "Arab Spring" uprisings for introducing a competitive, though flawed, democracy following decades of autocratic rule.

However, rights groups now say Saied, in power since 2019, has undone many of those democratic gains while removing institutional and legal checks on his power. Saied has rejected criticism of his actions, saying he is fighting a corrupt elite and traitors, and that he will not be a dictator.

Senior figures from the biggest parties, which largely oppose Saied, have been imprisoned on various charges over the past year and those parties have not publicly backed any of the three candidates on Sunday's ballot. Other opponents have been barred from running.

"The scene is shameful. Journalists and opponents in prison, including one presidential candidate." said Wael, a bank employee in Tunis, who gave only his first name.

Political tensions have risen since an electoral commission named by Saied disqualified three prominent candidates last month, amid protests by opposition and civil society groups.

Lawmakers loyal to Saied then approved a law last week stripping the administrative court of authority over election disputes. This court is widely seen as the country's last independent judicial body, after Saied dissolved the Supreme Judicial Council and dismissed dozens of judges in 2022.

While elections in the years soon after the 2011 revolution were fiercely contested and drew very high participation rates, public anger at Tunisia's poor economic performance and corruption among the elite led to disillusionment.

Saied, elected in 2019, seized most powers in 2021 when he dissolved the elected parliament and rewrote the constitution, a move the opposition described as a coup.

A referendum on the constitution passed with turnout of only 30 per cent, while a January 2023 runoff for the new, nearly powerless, parliament he created with that constitution had turnout of only 11 per cent.

Although tourism revenues are on the rise and there has been financial help from European countries worried about migration, state finances remain strained. Shortages of subsidised goods are common, as are outages of power and water.