Middle East & Africa | Second time as farce

Tunisia’s strongman president looks set to win another term in office

It helps to put most of your opponents in jail

Photograph: Getty Images
|DUBAI

IN A SENSE, he kept his promises. Five years ago Kais Saied ran for president as an outsider who would overhaul Tunisia’s politics. He has done just that, giving himself powers described by some as a “self-coup” and smothering a nascent democracy. Few Tunisians would say they are better off. Yet on October 6th Mr Saied will stand for re-election in a vote he will surely win.

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Democracy delenda est”

From the September 28th 2024 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

Discover more

A pro-Iranian Hezbollah supporter holds up a poster of assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in front of a building that was flattened in an Israeli air strike on Beirut

Israel’s invasion of Lebanon may bolster support for Hizbullah

The group is deeply embedded in Lebanese politics and society

People in front of the colourful bathing huts at Muizenberg Beach, near Cape Town

South Africa’s coalition government has improved the vibes

Now for the hard part


Life In Israel In The Run Up To The First Anniversary October 7th Attacks

Wrath and sorrow rule in Israel on the anniversary of October 7th 

A divided country is at war with multiple enemies, and fighting itself  


A dangerous dispute in the Horn of Africa

Ethiopia and Somalia are courting escalation in a quarrel over port access

Tracking Israel’s war in Lebanon, in maps

The latest data on the conflict

Iran bombards Israel as the war escalates further

Israel may take it as justification to attack Iran