Saied won 73 per cent of the votes and has been wholly embraced by hundreds of thousands of young Tunisians in a victory that’s all the more remarkable: He ran little advertising. In a turnout of 55 per cent, Saied won a landslide, roughly taking three ballots for every one cast to the media magnate. His paternal uncle, Hicham Saied, was Tunisia’s fist paediatric surgeon and celebrated for separating conjoined twins in the 1970s. During the campaign, Saied ran on a message of social conservatism but also hit out at the Israeli regime for its cancerous role in Middle Eastern politics. He said Tunisia and Tunisians have no problems with Jews and that many Tunisians, including his father, sheltered them during the Second World War.

Source: The North Africa Journal October 18, 2019 13:18 UTC