2024 Tunisian presidential election

Presidential elections are scheduled to be held on 6 October 2024 in Tunisia. They will be the first presidential elections since president Kais Saied’s self-coup in 2021.

Background
On 25 July 2021, Republic Day, after months of political crisis between the President of the Republic and Assembly of the Representatives of the People, thousands of demonstrators rallied to call for the dissolution of the Assembly and regime change. These rallies are taking place as the health crisis around the COVID-19 pandemic escalates. On the same day, President Kais Saied dismissed the government of Hichem Mechichi and suspended the activities of the Assembly, using the emergency powers provided for in article 80 of the Constitution of Tunisia. The country's largest parliamentary party, Ennahda, and its leader, Assembly Speaker Rached Ghannouchi, condemned the president's actions, calling them a coup d'état. Some political analysts and lawyers have also called the events a coup d'état.

On 22 September, Saied confirmed by decree the extension of the validity of the decisions, as well as the dissolution of the Provisional Body Responsible for Checking the Constitutionality of Bills, and decided to suspend the payment of wages and benefits provided to the chairman of the Assembly of Representatives of the People and its members, and granted himself the right to rule by decree, de facto restoring legislative power. His decision was criticized by most of the parties represented in Parliament.

On 29 September, the President instructed Najla Bouden to form a new government. Thus, she became the first female head of government in the country and throughout the Arab world.

In April 2024, the National Salvation Front coalition announced that it was boycotting the 2024 presidential election, denouncing an “electoral farce”.

Constitutional referendum
From 15 January to 20 March 2022, an electronic consultation took place on the reforms to be proposed in anticipation of the referendum. During the ballot, which was the subject of a very low turnout, the options of a transition to a presidential system and to a single-member ballot for the legislative elections prevailed.

On 30 March 2022, 120 deputies, under the chairmanship of the second vice-president of the Assembly Tarek Fetiti, met in a virtual session to vote for the end of the exceptional measures in force since 25 July. The same day, Kaïs Saïed dissolved Parliament, which the Constitution forbids during the period when the state of exception is applied, and threatens the deputies with legal proceedings.

On 6 April, Kais Saied announced the holding of the parliamentary ballot according to a two-round uninominal majority ballot. On 5 September, he announced that the electoral law will be drafted taking into consideration the recommendations of the supporters of the 25 July process, and that the rest of the political class will be excluded from this process. The electoral law will have to be published no later than 16 September to meet the deadlines.

On 25 July 2022, the new Constitution was adopted by constitutional referendum with 94.6% of the votes and a 30.5% turnout. A new electoral law was then published by decree on 15 September.

Disqualified
On 19 July 2024, a court barred Lotfi Mraïhi, the president of the Republican People's Union, from standing in elections for life after convicting him of vote-buying involving the 2019 presidential election. He was also sentenced to eight months' imprisonment.