Who are Kais Saied's opponents in Tunisia's 6 October presidential election?

In Tunisia, two B-list politicians are vying to challenge President Kais Saied in the upcoming presidential race after his strongest opponents were disqualified for failing to meet certain required conditions.

On 10 August, the Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE) announced that only three candidates would be on the ballot for the 6 October election: current President Kais Saied; Zouhair Maghzaoui, a Pan-Arabist and actually is known as pro-Saiedist; and Ayachi Zammel, a former deputy and leader of a small party.

ISIE stated that the fourteen other disqualified candidates had "not collected enough endorsements". Those rejected have now turned to the Administrative Court to contest ISIE's decision.

While that's being sorted, here's a brief look at the three candidates confirmed for October's presidential ballot:

Zouhair Maghzaoui: an Assadist and Saied's ally

Zouhair Maghzaoui, 56, is a former teacher and trade unionist with a long history in politics.

He became the Secretary-General of the People's Movement after the assassination of the party's founder Mohamed Brahmi in 2013. Brahmi had founded the party post-2011 revolution, as a leftist alternative highly critical of Ennahda, Tunisia's largest Islamist party.

In 2021, Maghzaoui's party supported Saied's decision to dissolve the Parliament and government, which was largely controlled by Ennahda, for failing to establish "a real democracy and prioritising political interests over the people."

However, Maghzaoui later criticised Saied's post-suspension tenure, arguing it had led to widespread despair among Tunisians.

Maghzaoui is a prominent political Nasserist and a staunch defender of Syrian president Bashar Assad's actions in Syria. In 2016, he lauded Assad as a "great leader" fighting the same war against "terrorism" that Tunisians are facing. His 2021 meeting with Assad drew widespread criticism from Tunisian media.

Ayachi Zammel: the underdog

Ayachi Zammel's political experience is modest compared to his rivals.

He served as President of the Health Commission in the dissolved Parliament and was a deputy of Tahya Tounes, a secular party.

In 2022, he founded the Azimoun Movement, a small party that has yet to make any significant impact on the Tunisian political scene.

Zammel's strength lies in his academic credentials. A chemical engineer with extensive experience in overseeing economic issues and international deals at various multinational companies—an expertise that could be helpful for the cash-strapped country haggard by an economic crisis that's been stretching for over a decade.

Kais Saied: The Rise and Fall

Kais Saied's first term has been so riddled with controversies that there may not be enough space to discuss them all, but it's worth revisiting his early days, when he was adored by many Tunisians. 

At sixty-one, Saied was a retired professor with an "impeccable" political record when he entered the 2019 presidential race. 

Unlike his predecessors, who favoured Saint-Tropez holidays and exotic animal collections, Saied's life was a bit closer to the Tunisian typical citizen. He hung out in a middle-class neighbourhood in Tunis, frequenting the same cafés where Tunisians grumbled about their leaders and policies.

And from these humble cafés, Saied launched his campaign. His populist speeches and centrist politics earned him a landslide victory in the 2019 presidential race.

Since then, things have taken a dark turn. He has rewritten the constitution to grant himself more power, reshuffled the government repeatedly without clear reasons, held legislative elections for a parliament seen as a puppet, and propagated conspiracy theories against black migrants, fuelling an ongoing wave of violence.

Meanwhile, critics of his rule have faced trials for "conspiring against the state" and unwarranted travel bans.

"[The 6 October election] will be nothing more than a formality that serves no purpose other than to grant imaginary legitimacy to a political failure and an unprecedented economic collapse," argues Kamel Akrout, a Tunisian politician, who decided not to boycott what he called "a play."