Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali has won a fifth term with 89.62 percent of the vote in the North African country’s presidential election, the state news agency said on Monday.
Ben Ali’s margin was down slightly compared with the 94.4 percent he received in the last election five years ago, a dip that may help deflect foreign criticism that the latest race was tilted in his favor.
Ben Ali’s RCD ruling party won 75 percent of the seats in a parliamentary vote held simultaneously on Sunday, the official news agency TAP reported, quoting official results. Tunisia’s most prominent opposition figures did not take part in the election. Two of Ben Ali’s challengers on the ballot rarely criticize the president and the third acknowledged during the campaign that he could not win.
In his 22 years in power, Ben Ali has established Tunisia as a moderate voice in the Arab world and Western governments view it as a bulwark against Islamist extremism, although some have raised questions about its record on democracy.
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