Tunisian President Kais Saied fired his Prime Minister Ahmed Hachani without explanation on Wednesday and replaced him with Social Affairs Minister Kamel Madouri, according to a statement from his office.
Hachani took office on August 1 last year, replacing Najla Bouden, who was also dismissed by Saied without official reason.
His successor, Madouri, only took over the social affairs portfolio in May.
In a post from his office on social media, Saied is shown shaking hands with Madouri, with a brief statement saying only that the president has “decided to appoint him to head the government when he replaces Mr. Ahmed Hachani.”
Saied, 66, was democratically elected in 2019 but staged a sweeping power grab in 2021 and is now seeking another term in the October 6 election.
He filed his official candidacy for the election on Monday, while some potential challengers are barred from running, including through criminal prosecution and imprisonment.
After registering, the incumbent president told reporters that his candidacy was part of a “war for liberation and self-determination” to “establish a new republic.”
As part of Saied’s consolidation of power, Tunisia’s constitution was rewritten in 2022 to create a presidential regime whose parliament has extremely limited powers.
On Monday, Abir Moussi, a key opposition figure and former lawmaker who has been in prison since October, was sentenced to two years in prison under the “fake news” law days after she reportedly submitted her candidacy through her lawyers.
Media personality Nizar Chaari was also sentenced to eight months in prison on Monday night, days after three of his campaign staff were arrested on suspicion of forging signatures.
Other jailed potential candidates include Issam Chebbi, leader of the centrist Al Joumhouri party, and Ghazi Chaouchi, head of the social democratic Democratic Current party, both held for “conspiracy against the state”.
The two are among more than 20 of Saied’s opponents detained in a rash of arrests that began in February 2023.
Other would-be candidates — including Mondher Zenaidi and rapper-turned-entrepreneur Karim Gharbi — say they have been unofficially barred because authorities refuse to provide a copy of the clean criminal record that hopefuls must submit as part of their voter registration.
One of them, retired Admiral Kamel Akrout, said the authorities refused to provide his record because the job title on his ID card was out of date.
“The ruling authority decided to exclude every opposition voice” and “to move towards an undemocratic system”, Akrout said.
Last month, Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnes Callamard said that since Saied took power, “violations that we thought were part of Tunisia’s past are becoming more recognizable and systematic”. But Saied denied on Monday that his government was suppressing critical voices, saying “anyone who talks about restrictions is delusional”.
