General elections were held in

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

on 25 October 2009. Results released on 26 October 2009 indicated a substantial victory for incumbent President

Zine El Abidine Ben Ali Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (Tunisian Arabic: , ; 3 September 1936 – 19 September 2019), commonly known as Ben Ali or Ezzine, was a Tunisian politician who served as the second President of Tunisia from 1987 to 2011. In that year, during the Tun ...

, who won the reelection for a fifth five-year term, and the governing Constitutional Democratic Rally. It was the last election contested under the Ben Ali regime, prior to the Tunisian Revolution.

Observers

The

African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the African Union. The b ...

sent a team of election observers to cover the election. The delegation was led by Benjamin Bounkoulou who described the election as "free and fair".Tunisian president in fifth win
BBC News, 26 October 2009. However, a spokesperson from the

United States State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...

indicated that Tunisia did not allow international monitoring of elections, but the U.S. was still committed to working with the president of Tunisia and its government. There also were reports of mistreatment of an opposition candidate.Opposition leader who gave TV interview in Paris is beaten by police on his return
''Menassat'', 1 October 2009

Results

President

The Interior Ministry released the official results for the election on Monday 26 October 2009.Fifth term for Tunisia's president

Press Association PA Media (formerly the Press Association) is a multimedia news agency A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and All-news radio, radio and ...

, 26 October 2009. Voter turnout was recorded at 89.40% with 4,447,388 of Tunisia's 5.3 million registered voters participating.A parliamentary majority for the Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD) with 89.59%
Tunisia Online News, October 26, 2009. In the presidential race, incumbent president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali won 89.62% of the vote. His nearest rivals were Mohamed Bouchiha with 5.01% of the vote and Ahmed Inoubli with 3.80%, and Ahmed Brahum with 1.57%.

Parliament

In the Chamber of Deputies election, the Democratic Constitutional Rally, which had governed continuously from Tunisia's independence from France in 1956 until the Tunisian Revolution, won 84.59% of the vote and 161 seats. The Movement of Socialist Democrats won 16 seats with 4.63% of the vote, the Popular Unity Party won 12 seats and 3.39% of votes, The Unionist Democratic Union won 9 seats with 2.56%. The remaining 16 seats were divided between the Social Liberal Party, who won eight seats, the Green Party for Progress, who won six and the Movement Ettajdid who won two seats.

References

External links

Presidential and Legislative Elections in Tunisia - 2009

Media

Ben Ali reelected with 89 per cent
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Radio France Internationale Radio France Internationale, usually referred to as RFI, is the State media, state-owned international radio news network of France. With 59.5 million listeners in 2022, it is one of the most-listened-to international radio stations in the world ...

Unsurprising victory for Ben Ali
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Final results give President Ben Ali a fifth term
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France 24 France 24 ( in French) is a French state-owned publicly funded international news television network based in Paris. Its channels, broadcast in French, English, Arabic and Spanish, are aimed at the overseas market. Based in the Paris suburb ...

Ben Ali wins unsurprising landslide in presidential election
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{{Tunisian elections

Elections in Tunisia 2009 in Tunisia Presidential elections in Tunisia October 2009 in Africa