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☆ Tunisia heads to the polls with a fading reputation as the Arab Spring’s only success story
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-06 | by ( Associated Press | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Not long ago, Tunisia was hailed as the Arab Spring’s only success story. He advanced to a runoff promising to usher in a “New Tunisia” and hand more power to young people and local governments. Seventeen potential candidates filed paperwork to run and Tunisia’s election authority approved only three: Saied, Zouhair Maghzaoui and Ayachi Zammel. That includes the 83-year-old leader of Tunisia’s most well organized political party Ennahda, which rose to power after the Arab Spring. People stand in line outside a polling station during the presidential election in the capital Tunis, Tunisia, on October 6, 2024.

Persons: Press — Tunisians, Kais Saied, El, Ben Ali —, Zouhair Maghzaoui, Saied, Saied’s, Zouhair, Ayachi, Jihed Abidellaoui, Rached Ghannouchi, party’s, Abir, Ennahda —, Tunisians, Zoubeir Souissi, Yassine Mahjoub, who’ve, Tunisia won’t Organizations: Press, Abid, Authorities, Reuters, Free Destourian Party, World Bank, European Union, Today, International Monetary Fund, Reuters Economic, Tunisia's, Independent Authority, Elections, Getty, Initiative, Saied Locations: TUNIS, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Tunis, Europe, Saharan Africa, Africa, AFP, ”, Iran, Russia, Saied, Israel

☆ Tunisia places senior official in main opposition party under house arrest
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

TUNIS, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Tunisian authorities placed Abdel Karim Harouni, the senior official in the opposition Ennahda Islamist Party, under house arrest, the country's main opposition coalition said on Saturday. Harouni heads the Shura Council, the highest-ranking body in Ennahda, which was the biggest political party in the parliament closed by President Kais Saied in 2021. The Salvation Front coalition said "the arbitrary decision" against Harouni was in the context of the arrest of leaders of Ennahda and the closure of its headquarters. The government also banned meetings at all Ennahda offices, and police closed all party offices, in a move Ennahda said aimed at consolidating a dictatorial regime. The opposition parties have decried their leaders' arrests as politically motivated, and local and international rights groups have urged authorities to free the detainees.

Persons: Abdel Karim Harouni, Harouni, Kais Saied, Rached Ghannouchi, Noureddine Bhiri, Riadh Bettaib, Said Ferjani, Sahbi Atigue, Mohamed Ben Salem, Ennahda, Saied, Tarek Amara, Jonathan Oatis Organizations: Islamist Party, Front, Police, Thomson Locations: TUNIS, Ennahda

☆ What’s Happening to Tunisia Is a Tragedy - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Nadia Marzouki | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Many of my friends and family were among the nearly three million people who voted for Mr. Saied. Yet from the outset, I found Mr. Saied’s project terrifying. Mr. Saied’s goal is to purify society from corrupt influence: Social hygiene, not social justice, is the point. In April the children of numerous political prisoners, speaking from Geneva, called on the European Union to impose sanctions on Mr. Saied’s regime. The goal is not simply to crush dissent but also to dehumanize political prisoners and their families.

☆ Tunisian judge sentences opposition leader Ghannouchi to year in prison
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Tarek Amara | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

TUNIS, May 15 (Reuters) - A Tunisian judge on Monday sentenced in absentia opposition leader Rached Ghannouchi, a fierce critic of President Kais Saied, to a year in prison on charges of incitement, his lawyer Monia Bouali said. Ghannouchi, 81, has been in prison since April. He has called his critics criminals, traitors and terrorists and warned that any judge who freed them would be considered abetting them. Ghannouchi has refused to appear before judges in legal cases, arguing that the charges are fabricated and the trial is political, his lawyer said. "These trials are the purification against opposition leaders, using the judiciary, because they have not been able to defeat them politically," said Bouali.

☆ Tunisian judge orders detention of opposition leader Ghannouchi
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Tarek Amara | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The 81-year-old, head of the Islamist Ennahda party, was the speaker of the elected parliament, which was shut down in 2021 by President Kais Saied when he seized all powers. Ghannouchi, who was arrested on Monday, was ordered detained following an investigation by the judge that lasted eight hours, lawyer Monia Bouali added. His lawyer said the decision to hold Ghannouchi in custody was pre-planned because of his expressions of opinion. Tunisian authorities on Tuesday banned meetings at all Ennahda offices and police closed the headquarters of the Salvation Front, the main opposition coalition. Since Tunisia's 2011 revolution, Ghannouchi has been a major political player, leading his party to participate in successive coalition governments with secular parties.

☆ Tunisia Arrests a Leading Opposition Figure
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Vivian Yee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

That unpopularity has made Ennahda a convenient target of Mr. Saied’s campaign against political rivals, with Mr. al-Ghannouchi the most prominent opponent to be targeted so far. Ennahda said about 100 plainclothes police officers raided and searched Mr. al-Ghannouchi’s home in the capital, Tunis, taking him and another party member to a military barracks. The authorities then raided Ennahda’s Tunis headquarters, arresting two other prominent party officials, and searched the home of Mr. al-Ghannouchi’s daughter, according to Ennahda and Tunisian prosecutors. “The Ennahda movement condemns this very dangerous development and demands the immediate release” of Mr. al-Ghannouchi, the party said in a statement posted on the leader’s Facebook page. “It also calls on all liberals to stand together in the face of these oppressive practices.”

☆ Tunisian opposition defies protest ban with rally
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/3] Supporters of Tunisia's Salvation Front opposition coalition react during a protest over the arrest of some of its leaders and other prominent critics of the president, in Tunis, Tunisia March 5, 2023. REUTERS/Zoubeir SouissiTUNIS, March 5 (Reuters) - Hundreds of opposition supporters in Tunisia defied an official ban on their protest against the president on Sunday after some of their leaders were arrested, breaking through a police barrier in central Tunis to rally in the city's main street. The National Salvation Front coalition combines Tunisia's biggest party, the Islamist Ennahda, the Stop the Coup protest movement and some other political parties, demanding that President Kais Saied step down. However, opposition to Saied is fragmented along ideological and political lines that were drawn during a period of democratic government after the 2011 revolution which triggered the Arab spring. Reporting by Tarek Amara, writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Bernadette BaumOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Tunisian union holds biggest protest yet against president
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] Supporters of the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT) protest against President Kais Saied, accusing him of trying to stifle basic freedoms, including union rights, in Tunis, Tunisia March 4, 2023. REUTERS/Zoubeir SouissiTUNIS, March 4 (Reuters) - Tunisia's powerful UGTT labour union rallied in the capital on Saturday in what appeared to be the biggest protest yet against President Kais Saied, staging a show of strength after his recent crackdown on opponents. Many thousands of protesters filled Habib Bourguiba Avenue, the main street in central Tunis, holding banners that read "No to one-man rule" and chanting "Freedom! Hamma Hammami, head of the Workers Party, said protests were the answer to what he called Saied's "creeping dictatorship". Saied has denied his actions were a coup, saying they were legal and necessary to save Tunisia from chaos.

☆ Tunisia holds prominent critics of president in pre-trial detention, lawyers say
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Feb 25 - A Tunisian anti-terrorism investigative judge decided on Saturday to hold three prominent politicians and a high-profile businessman in pre-trial detention, their defence team said, amid a continuing crackdown targeting opposition figures. The four men are the first to face a judicial hearing among over a dozen leading figures critical of President Kais Saied who have been detained this month. Late on Friday, police also detained Ghazi Chaouachi, another prominent critic of Saied, his son said. Saied has said some of those detained are behind food shortages that economists have blamed on a crisis in state finances. Police have also detained a senior figure in the powerful UGTT labour union and several members of a police union on separate charges.

☆ Tunisian Authorities Arrest Opposition Politicians Amid Social Discontent
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Chao Deng | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Noureddine Bhiri, pictured in the foreground in light-colored frames, right, is a senior figure of the Ennahda opposition party. Tunisian authorities have detained a handful of opposition figures and businessmen whom President Kais Saied views as posing a threat to his rule, according to human-rights activists and the United Nations, which called for their release. At least nine people have been detained or arrested since the weekend, including politicians, judges and the head of the country’s main independent news outlet, according to Human Rights Watch, which is tracking the cases. Some have been accused of posing a danger to state security, according to the rights group and lawyers.

☆ Tunisia police arrest ex-judges sacked by president, lawyer and media say
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( Tarek Amara | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The local Mosaique FM radio network said Akremi's arrest was linked to the investigation into the assassination a decade ago of Chokri Belaid, a political activist. Ennahda, the biggest opposition party, said the arrests were aimed at intimidating opponents of Tunisia's president. Saied's political opponents, whom he has labelled traitors, have accused him of a coup aimed at dismantling the democracy built after a 2011 revolution. The president has denied those accusations, saying his moves were lawful and necessary to save Tunisia from chaos. Over recent months, authorities have arrested or opened investigations into several of Saied's political opponents.

☆ Tunisian police detain prominent politicians and businessman
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-11 | by ( Tarek Amara | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

TUNIS, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Tunisian police detained politicians and a prominent, politically connected businessman on Saturday, their lawyers said, in a case that local media said was based on suspicion of conspiracy against state security. Ennahda, an Islamist party that is the biggest in the opposition, said the arrest of Turki was aimed at intimidating the president's opponents. The Salvation Front, the main opposition coalition against Saied, condemned his arrest, saying police had questioned him several times for meeting opposition figures at his home. Neither Turki nor Ltaif have been prominent critics of the president. The businessman, Ltaif, was also arrested at his home, his lawyer Redha Bel Hadj said by phone.

☆ Thousands of Tunisians rally against president on revolution anniversary
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Tarek Amara | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

TUNIS, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Thousands of protesters marched against Tunisian President Kais Saied's seizure of near total power in central Tunis on Saturday, demanding he step down as they marked the anniversary of a key date in the 2011 revolution that brought democracy. "We were on Bourguiba in January 2011 when Saied was not present... today he is closing Bourguiba to us. We will reach it whatever the price," said Chaima Issa, an activist who took part in the 2011 revolution before the crowd pushed through the barriers. [1/5] Demonstrators hold placards during a protest against Tunisian President Kais Saied, on the anniversary of the 2011 uprising, in Tunis, Tunisia January 14, 2023. However, Saied unilaterally changed the official anniversary date and has said he regards Jan. 14 as a moment when the revolution went astray.

☆ Polls open in Tunisian vote boycotted by opposition
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] A woman casts her ballot at a polling station during parliamentary election in Tunis, Tunisia December 17, 2022. Saied shut the previous parliament down last year, surrounding the legislature with tanks and assuming near total authority. The vote appears to have stirred little interest among a population jaded by political dysfunction and struggling with economic hardship. With the main parties absent, a total of 1,058 candidates - only 120 of them women - are running for 161 seats. For 10 of those - seven in Tunisia and three decided by expatriate voters - there is just one candidate.

☆ Tunisian opposition calls on president to quit after low turnout election
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] Tunisia's President Kais Saied speaks outside a polling station during parliamentary election in Tunis, Tunisia, December 17, 2022. Tunisian Presidency/Handout via REUTERSTUNIS, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Tunisia's "Salvation Front" opposition coalition called for President Kais Saied to quit office, saying he had lost his legitimacy after Saturday's parliamentary election had a preliminary turnout figure of less than 9%. Although opposition groups have previously attacked Saied's political programme, they had not previously said he should quit office. "From this moment we consider Saied an illegitimate president and demand he resign after this fiasco," he said. Saied has presented his political changes as necessary to save Tunisia from years of political and economic crisis.

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