Tunisia’s President Kais Saied has won re-election in the country’s presidential race, with more than 90 percent of the vote. Voter turnout was low amid crackdowns on the opposition.
The country’s electoral commission announced on Friday the final ballot count for the vote that was held last Sunday.
Saied was first elected as president in 2019. He has concentrated power into his hands through such means as constitutional revisions that allow the president to appoint a prime minister without parliamentary approval.
His potential rivals of opposition parties were detained ahead of the election.
Opposition camps called on voters to boycott the election as a protest.
As a result, voter turnout stood at 28.8 percent, much lower than the 55 percent in the previous presidential election.
Tunisia was once hailed as the only successful example of the Arab Spring, a pro-democracy movement that spread across the Middle East.
This was because public protests led to the fall of an authoritarian regime 13 years ago and democratization advanced across the country.
But the low rate of voter participation suggests growing public distrust in politics, as Saied tightens his grip.