Kais Saied

Kais Saied

Kais Saied (Arabic: ???? ??????; born 22 February 1958) is a Tunisian politician, jurist and a retired university professor of constitutional law serving as the President of Tunisia since October 2019. He was president of the Tunisian Association of Constitutional Law from 1995 to 2019. Having worked in various legal and academic roles since the 1980s, Saied joined the 2019 presidential election as an independent social conservative supported by Ennahda and others across the political spectrum. Running on a populist platform with little campaigning, Saied sought to appeal to younger voters, pledged to combat corruption and supported improving the electoral system. Saied won the second round of the election with 72.71% of the vote, defeating Nabil Karoui, and was sworn in as president on 23 October 2019. In January 2021, protests began against Saied's government in response to alleged police brutality, economic hardship and the COVID-19 pandemic. On 25 July 2021, Saied suspended the parliament and dismissed Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi, which triggered an ongoing political crisis involving leading figures from Ennahda.

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