Tunisia’s Kais Saied calls presidential election on October 6

Elections will take place as the country continues to operate under a state of emergency

Tunisia’s President Kais Saied has called for presidential elections on October 6, his office said in a statement early on Wednesday.

Tunisia has been under a state of emergency since 2015, which is due to remain in place at least until the end of the year, making it the longest in the country’s history.

Since the 2011 uprising, the state of emergency has been lifted only between 2013 and 2015.

It has been renewed every few months since November 2015, when it was reinstated after a terrorist attack by ISIS on a presidential guards’ bus killed 12 of its members and injured 16 others, including civilians.

The legal measure enables authorities to do whatever is considered to be necessary to protect the country from “imminent danger”.

Mr Saied consolidated all branches of authority in July 2021, using the emergency law to dissolve the Tunisian Parliament and the high judicial council, and ruling by presidential decree.

But he defended the measures, saying they were necessary to prevent the state from “total collapse”.

More than 20 critics have been arrested and placed under pre-trial detention or house arrest, with others banned from travelling – sometimes without being officially charged – due to the continuing state of emergency.

There are concerns about the validity of the elections as many of Mr Saied’s opponents are currently imprisoned.