To ensure he wins Sunday's election, Tunisia's president has effectively eliminated his opponents before the first vote is cast.

Undeterred by mounting criticism at home and abroad, Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed continues to strangle the country's fragile young democracy (if it can still be called a democracy). This Sunday (6 October) he will run for a second term of office against the only two candidates permitted to stand against him, one of whom is in prison.

Last month the Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE), which now falls under the president's office, confirmed only Saïed and two former members of parliament, Zouhair Maghzaoui and Ayachi Zammel, as presidential candidates. In August this year, the ISIE disqualified 14 other prospective candidates for various reasons. Seven other possible candidates couldn't file their paperwork as they didn't get clearance from the Ministry of Interior.

"The electoral commission has been under the control of Saïed since he restructured it in April 2022; its seven members are now nominated by the president," Human Rights Watch observed. "Instead of ensuring the integrity of the upcoming election, the commission has intervened to skew the ballot in favour of Saïed."

The Administrative Court, which theoretically has exclusive jurisdiction over electoral candidacy disputes and whose decisions should be legally binding, last month overruled the ISIE....