AP Archive | Young Tunisians protest ahead of Sunday’s election, say they won’t vote @APArchive | Uploaded October 2024 | Updated October 2024, 1 week ago.
(4 Oct 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tunis, Tunisia - 4 October 2024
1. A protester bangs on a drum at the beginning of an anti-government protest
2. Protesters stand with flags of Lebanon and Palestine at the protest
3. Protesters before the protest, man speaking into megaphone
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Siwar Gmati, 27, activist and organizer:
“No, absolutely no, I won’t vote. Because first of all, there is no one in the candidates that I can vote for, but also what happened in the electoral process, it doesn’t have any guarantees for a transparent and free election.”
5. Various of protesters marching in central Tunis
6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mustapha Ben Ali, 27, protester:
“We came to protest to say that the president of the republic, who won five years of governance, does not want these elections to be fair now that his term has ended.”
7. Protesters gather in central Tunis
8. SOUNDBITE (French) Hamma Hammami, Spokesperson Tunisia Workers’ Party:
“There are a lot of young people here today, and they didn’t live under the dictatorship of Ben Ali. They don’t know what dictatorship means. Repression, torture, imprisonment. They haven’t lived under a police state, but I’m very happy to hear them today saying no to a new police state.”
9. Various of protesters marching in central Tunis
STORYLINE:
Protesters in Tunisia marched through the capital Friday, two days ahead of a presidential election that President Kais Saied is widely expected to win, having imprisoned or refused candidature to most of his opponents.
Those who attended the march, the majority of them young people, said they won’t be voting this Sunday.
“No, absolutely no, I won’t vote,” said Siwar Gmati, 27, an activist with a Tunisian watchdog organization.
“First of all, there is no one in the candidates that I can vote for, but also what happened in the electoral process, it doesn’t have any guarantees for a transparent and free election.”
Opposition parties have called for a boycott of the election after controversial decisions by the election authority appointed by Saied and the arrests of several candidates.
Saied was elected as a political outsider in 2019, and promised to usher in a “New Tunisia” and hand more power to young people and local governments.
But since then, Saied has garnered criticism from Tunisia's allies and opposition parties for rewriting Tunisia's constitution to consolidate his own power.
Authorities have arrested and imprisoned journalists, lawyers, activists and civil society figures.
The presidential election is Tunisia’s third since protests led to the 2011 ouster of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali during the Arab Spring and will gauge popular opinion about the trajectory that Tunisia’s fading democracy has taken since Saied took office.
Hamma Hammami, a spokesperson for the Tunisia Workers’ Party, looked on as the protest moved down Avenue Habib Bourguiba.
"I’m very happy to hear them today saying no to a new police state," he said.
In addition to their protests about the handling of the electoral process, young Tunisians have been hit hard by rising unemployment, which at 16%, is one of the region’s highest.
===========================================================
Clients are reminded to adhere to all listed restrictions and to check the terms of their licence agreements. For further assistance, please contact the AP Archive on: Tel +44(0)2074827482 Email: info@aparchive.com.
Find out more about AP Archive: aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: instagram.com/APNews
You can license this story through AP Archive: aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/13546a0e229741478707221335653399
(4 Oct 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tunis, Tunisia - 4 October 2024
1. A protester bangs on a drum at the beginning of an anti-government protest
2. Protesters stand with flags of Lebanon and Palestine at the protest
3. Protesters before the protest, man speaking into megaphone
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Siwar Gmati, 27, activist and organizer:
“No, absolutely no, I won’t vote. Because first of all, there is no one in the candidates that I can vote for, but also what happened in the electoral process, it doesn’t have any guarantees for a transparent and free election.”
5. Various of protesters marching in central Tunis
6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mustapha Ben Ali, 27, protester:
“We came to protest to say that the president of the republic, who won five years of governance, does not want these elections to be fair now that his term has ended.”
7. Protesters gather in central Tunis
8. SOUNDBITE (French) Hamma Hammami, Spokesperson Tunisia Workers’ Party:
“There are a lot of young people here today, and they didn’t live under the dictatorship of Ben Ali. They don’t know what dictatorship means. Repression, torture, imprisonment. They haven’t lived under a police state, but I’m very happy to hear them today saying no to a new police state.”
9. Various of protesters marching in central Tunis
STORYLINE:
Protesters in Tunisia marched through the capital Friday, two days ahead of a presidential election that President Kais Saied is widely expected to win, having imprisoned or refused candidature to most of his opponents.
Those who attended the march, the majority of them young people, said they won’t be voting this Sunday.
“No, absolutely no, I won’t vote,” said Siwar Gmati, 27, an activist with a Tunisian watchdog organization.
“First of all, there is no one in the candidates that I can vote for, but also what happened in the electoral process, it doesn’t have any guarantees for a transparent and free election.”
Opposition parties have called for a boycott of the election after controversial decisions by the election authority appointed by Saied and the arrests of several candidates.
Saied was elected as a political outsider in 2019, and promised to usher in a “New Tunisia” and hand more power to young people and local governments.
But since then, Saied has garnered criticism from Tunisia's allies and opposition parties for rewriting Tunisia's constitution to consolidate his own power.
Authorities have arrested and imprisoned journalists, lawyers, activists and civil society figures.
The presidential election is Tunisia’s third since protests led to the 2011 ouster of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali during the Arab Spring and will gauge popular opinion about the trajectory that Tunisia’s fading democracy has taken since Saied took office.
Hamma Hammami, a spokesperson for the Tunisia Workers’ Party, looked on as the protest moved down Avenue Habib Bourguiba.
"I’m very happy to hear them today saying no to a new police state," he said.
In addition to their protests about the handling of the electoral process, young Tunisians have been hit hard by rising unemployment, which at 16%, is one of the region’s highest.
===========================================================
Clients are reminded to adhere to all listed restrictions and to check the terms of their licence agreements. For further assistance, please contact the AP Archive on: Tel +44(0)2074827482 Email: info@aparchive.com.
Find out more about AP Archive: aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: instagram.com/APNews
You can license this story through AP Archive: aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/13546a0e229741478707221335653399
