What Tunisia experienced on October 6, 2024 cannot be described as an election in the sense of international political rights standards. It was a political sequence that seriously undermined the very essence of popular sovereignty: an electoral staging devoid of any real pluralism, any fair competition and any effective guarantee of the right to stand as a candidate. A morbid ceremony for the Republic, in which the fundamental principles of electoral law were betrayed, and with them the ideal of active citizenship.

Ten months on, the situation is alarming: no assessment, no recognition of systemic violations, no public debate, either by the authorities or by political and social parties and organizations. This silence constitutes a second form of violence: it erases the victims, trivializes the abuse and paves the way for the arbitrary to be repeated.

This election was nothing more than a sham, designed to reappoint Kaïs Saïed without any real competition. A methodical process of exclusion, intimidation and repression sealed off the entire process and neutralized any serious, credible or simply independent candidates.

The 2024 electoral process completes a cycle of democratic regression that began on July 25, 2021. It consolidated a system based on the concentration of power, the restriction of freedoms and the neutralization of checks and balances. Elections have become an instrument of authoritarian legitimization, emptied of their democratic function.

If repression has been the main tool - arbitrary imprisonment, censorship, judicial harassment - it does not in itself explain the absence of mobilization or the collapse of solidarity. The decline in freedoms is also the result of political fragmentation, militant exhaustion and the absence of a common project to defend rights and institutions.

There are many explanatory factors: structural divisions, mistrust between actors, forced exile of rights defenders, isolation of detainees, fear of an instrumentalized justice system. But it is essential to recognize that the authoritarian upsurge is not only imposed from above: it also thrives on the vacuum left by a disunited and disarmed opposition.

The right to participate in public affairs, guaranteed by article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, has been seriously violated. The right to stand for election, to vote freely and to compete without discrimination or undue obstacles has been stripped of all effective content.

A confiscated ballot, neutralized candidates

The facts are clear. Dozens of candidates have been prevented from running, whether by legal, administrative or police means. Opponents have been incarcerated, parties excluded, court rulings ignored and intimidation campaigns orchestrated. Equality between candidates, freedom of expression and the right to an effective remedy have been systematically flouted.

The conditions imposed by the authorities were discriminatory and unenforceable: sponsorship forms had to be collected in person, even from prison; dual nationals were excluded; there were no effective remedies; the media were totally controlled; and campaign teams were harassed by security forces. Forms were distributed in an opaque manner; sponsorships were made almost impossible to obtain.

In the end, only a few candidates were allowed to compete, with no network and no visibility. The majority of representative political figures were disqualified, neutralized or discouraged. The result of the ballot was merely the formal confirmation of a power without rivals, in a climate of fear, silence and resignation.

Among the figures prevented or evicted:

• Ghazi Chaouachi, imprisoned since February 2023, was unable to file his candidacy, as the administration refused to recognize his mandate from prison and denied him access to the necessary forms.
• Abir Moussi, who has been in detention since October 2023, was declared ineligible even though there was no court decision to strip her of her civil and political rights.
• Abdellatif Mekki, sentenced to eight months' imprisonment with life-long ineligibility on the eve of the closing date for candidacies, had his right to stand removed without a final ruling.
• Imed Daïmi, disqualified on the grounds of alleged dual nationality, saw his court-ordered reinstatement blocked by the administration.
• Alaya Zammel, the officially validated independent candidate, was imprisoned immediately after his candidacy was accepted, and is facing dozens of legal proceedings in various jurisdictions across the country.
• Lotfi Mraihi, arrested on money-laundering charges, was dropped from the ballot in the middle of the nomination period.
• Mondher Zenaïdi, although reinstated by a ruling of the Administrative Court, was prevented from attending, as the administration refused to implement the decision.
• Safi Saïd, unable to obtain the required documents, was disqualified without any clear official reason.
• Kamel Akrout, a former national security advisor, was dismissed for failure to issue the n°3 card, a document that has become the administrative weapon par excellence for exclusion.
• Mourad Massoudi, magistrate and opponent, was sentenced to imprisonment and ineligibility, preventing him from pursuing his candidacy.
• Nizar Chaari, former member of parliament and party chairman, was sentenced to eight months in prison, excluded by an expeditious procedure.
• Leïla Hammami, a university lecturer, had her candidacy rejected due to an emergency court conviction for a case unrelated to the elections.
• Party leader Oulfa Hamdi was eliminated by a late amendment to the electoral law raising the minimum age to 40, even though she met all the other criteria.
• Karim Gharbi, a committed artist, was sentenced to a heavy prison term, dismissed for "disturbing the peace" without any electoral grounds.
• Monther Tlili, a candidate from civil society, was administratively prevented from gathering the required documents despite several attempts.

Don't let silence win

The presidential election of October 2024 marks a definitive break with pluralism. In less than three years, Tunisia has gone from a multi-party regime to a personal, centralized, authoritarian one. This rigged election is not an anomaly: it is the logical outcome of a project for undivided power.

In the face of this brutal regression, it is imperative to remember exclusions, to document them, to denounce them and to oppose them with civic, legal, political and international resistance. History will record that men and women wanted to be candidates, and that a regime prevented them from doing so. This refusal to forget is an act of remembrance, but also a gesture of combat.

Denouncing this reality, naming the violations, demanding reparations and laying the foundations for effective popular sovereignty is a minimum requirement for any approach to justice. For the memory of violations is an essential prerequisite for any reconstruction. Refusing to forget means refusing to legitimize the fait accompli.

The October 6, 2024 vote should not be a shameful interlude, but a wake-up call. It is a reminder that in the absence of vigilance, solidarity and collective commitment, rights can be silently destroyed. It calls on us to rebuild the conditions for civic engagement, to reaffirm the centrality of law, and to defend democracy as a fundamental right.

Speech, justice and mobilization are the first tools of this reconquest. The fight for a real, inclusive democracy based on popular sovereignty begins here.