MADRID 15 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, has condemned the repression of opposition politicians, activists and journalists during the recent campaign for the presidential elections in Tunisia, in which the current president, Kais Saied, won with more of 90 percent of the votes, and has demanded the release of “all those arbitrarily detained.”
Turk recalled that in the weeks prior to the October 6 elections, more than a hundred people were arrested, including several potential candidates, on a wide range of charges. The electoral commission, in fact, only ended up accepting three of the 17 candidates for the Presidency, citing pending criminal charges in some of these cases.
For the High Commissioner, these processes show a “lack of respect” for the minimum judicial guarantees and add to a chain of setbacks in terms of political and social freedoms in a country that once became an example of democratic progress at the dawn. of the revolts known as the Arab Spring.
Turk believes that Tunisia “has lost several of the advances” achieved since 2011 and that facilitated, among other issues, accountability and the review of “past abuses” perpetrated during the regime of Zine el Abidine Ben Ali. For this reason, he has called on the current authorities to “recommit” to issues such as transitional justice and reforms regarding freedoms and human rights.
Saied, who in 2021 annulled the elected Parliament dominated by the opposition Ennahda and arrogated to himself exceptional powers, has revalidated his mandate after sweeping elections marked by low participation, less than 29 percent.
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