TUNIS: Kais Saied, a political outsider who is backed by Islamists and leftists and wants to remake national politics, won a landslide victory in Tunisia’s presidential election on Sunday. He hailed the result as a “new revolution”.

Saied won 73 percent of the votes cast, according to preliminary official results released by the electoral commission on Monday, and turnout was 55 percent. His opponent, Nabil Karoui, had already conceded defeat.

Saied’s victory is a stinging rebuke for a governing elite that has failed to improve living standards or end corruption since the 2011 revolution in the North African country that introduced democracy and ushered in the “Arab Spring”.

Saied, a 61-year-old retired law professor, wants to introduce an experimental form of direct democracy. But he has no political party of his own and faces big challenges including high inflation and unemployment.

“What I have done is a new revolution,” Saied told a crowd of supporters gathered at his home in the Mnihla district on the outskirts of Tunis after his landslide victory became clear. “I tell Tunisians that you have impressed the world.”.

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2019