Tunisia's Kais Saied: president on a 'divine mission'

President Kais Saied, elected democratically before staging a power grab in 2021, sees himself as a man on a divine mission for Tunisia, but critics see him as ushering in a new authoritarian regime.

Clean-shaven, with an unwaveringly upright and slender figure, Saied has a stiff demeanour and no social media account.

He has given very few media interviews during his tenure, and limits his public comments to monologues in videos published on Facebook in which he speaks in stern classical Arabic, at times with perceptible anger.

Within three years, the 66-year-old has sacked three prime ministers.

"The president does not believe in the role of intermediaries between the people and himself," said Romdhane Ben Amor, spokesman for the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights (FTDES).

"He believes he has a revolutionary divine mission that would fulfill the people's will," Ben Amor said.

The president has often alleged plots aiming to undermine the country while he wages "a war of liberation and self-determination".

From day one, Saied pledged to right Tunisia's political and economic wrongs after the nation ousted longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.

Five years into his term, Amnesty International has denounced "a worrying decline in fundamental rights in the birthplace of the Arab Spring", the regional uprisings against authoritarian rule that began in 2011 in Tunisia.

A constitutional law professor by trade, Saied became prominent in 2011 when he appeared on TV expounding on his area of expertise.

He built his 2019 campaign on the motto "the people want" -- echoing slogans used during the revolution against Ben Ali -- and won his first term democratically in a landslide with 73 percent of the vote.

- Phosphate -

In 2021, he staged a sweeping power grab and dismissed parliament, replacing it with a rubber-stamp legislature.

A year later, he consolidated power by rewriting the constitution, enshrining a one-man rule which, to many critics, raises similarities to the regimes of Ben Ali and his predecessor, Habib Bourguiba, Tunisia's first president in 1957.

But for Saied, the country of 12 million has yet to reach its heyday.

He has defiantly accused international institutions and organisations of interference, while alleging the local rights groups receive "huge sums of money" from abroad, intended to undermine the country.

In 2023, Saied rejected "foreign diktats" from the International Monetary Fund over a bailout for the heavily indebted economy.

Saied said the measures would only "lead to more poverty".

Instead, he called for revival of the country's phosphates industry.

- Calligraphy amateur -

Internationally, Saied has maintained a close relationship with neighbouring Algeria, a key supporter providing cheaper energy and financial credits.

A proponent of Pan-Arabism, he stands with the Palestinians and has strengthened ties with Iran, Russia, and China.

But Tunisia remains a strategic regional partner for the United States and France -- its main financial supporters and arms suppliers.

Born in 1958 in Beni Khiar, near eastern Tunisia's Nabeul, Saied grew up in a middle-class family.

He holds conservative views on social issues, particularly on homosexuality, and is married to magistrate Ichraf Chebil with whom he has two daughters and a son.

Saied is a classical Arabic music afficionado and a calligraphy amateur, often handwriting speeches and letters with ink and dip pens.

He has presided over a wave of arrests targeting the political opposition and other critics, leaving him poised for victory on Sunday.

But he also has his supporters.

In Ariana in the northern suburbs of Tunis, 45-year-old mechanic Slah Assali remembers Saied as a "kind and decent" customer.

"A newspaper in hand and a cup of coffee, he would sometimes sit and chat with us at the shop," he told AFP. "He would explain political events in the country."

Assali, echoing Saied's own talking points, said he would vote for Saied again because he is "serious and hard-working yet often hindered by hidden hands".

Imed Mehimdi, a server at a cafe in Ariana, described Saied as modest and kind.

"He has put the country back on track," he said. "He saved Tunisia in the face of many disasters" and "fought corruption".