Tunisians voted Sunday in an election expected to grant President Kais Saied a second term, as his most prominent detractors, including one of the candidates challenging him, are in prison.

The 66-year-old president faces few obstacles to winning reelection, five years after riding anti-establishment backlash to a first term, and three after suspending parliament and rewriting the constitution giving the presidency more power.

The North African country’s election is its third since protests led to the 2011 ouster of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali — the first autocrat toppled in the Arab Spring uprisings that also overthrew leaders in Egypt, Libya and Yemen.

International observers praised the previous two contests as meeting democratic norms. However, a raft of arrests and actions taken by a Saied-appointed election authority have raised questions about whether this year’s race is free and fair. And opposition parties have called for a boycott.

What’s at stake?

Not long ago, Tunisia was hailed as the Arab Spring’s only success story. As coups, counterrevolutions and civil wars convulsed the region, the North African nation enshrined a new democratic constitution and saw its leading civil society groups win the Nobel Peace Prize for brokering political compromise.

But its new leaders were unable to buoy its struggling economy and were plagued by political infighting and episodes of violence and terrorism.

Amid that backdrop, Saied, then 61 and a political outsider, won his first term in 2019. He advanced to a runoff promising to usher in a “New Tunisia” and hand more power to young people and local governments.

This year’s election will offer a window into popular opinion about the trajectory that Tunisia’s fading democracy has taken since Saied took office.

Saied’s supporters appear to have remained loyal to him and his promise to transform Tunisia. But he isn’t affiliated with any political party, and it’s unclear just how deep his support runs among Tunisians.

It’s the first presidential race since Saied upended the country’s politics in July 2021, declaring a state of emergency, sacking his prime minister, suspending the parliament and rewriting Tunisia’s constitution consolidating his own power.

Those actions outraged pro-democracy groups and leading opposition parties, who called them a coup. Yet despite anger from career politicians, voters approved Saied’s new constitution the following year in a low-turnout referendum.

Authorities subsequently began arresting Saied’s critics including journalists, lawyers, politicians and civil society figures, charging them with endangering state security and violating a controversial anti-fake news law that observers argue stifles dissent.

Fewer voters turned out to participate in parliamentary and local elections in 2022 and 2023 amid economic woes and widespread political apathy.

Who’s running?

Many wanted to challenge Saied, but few were able to.

Seventeen potential candidates filed paperwork to run and Tunisia’s election authority approved only three: Saied, Zouhair Maghzaoui and Ayachi Zammel.

Maghzaoui is a veteran politician who has campaigned against Saied’s economic program and recent political arrests. Still, he is loathed by opposition parties for backing Saied’s constitution and earlier moves to consolidate power.

Zammel is a businessman supported by politicians not boycotting the race. During the campaign, he has been sentenced to prison time in four voter fraud cases related to signatures his team gathered to qualify for the ballot.

Others had hoped to run but were prevented. The election authority, known as ISIE, last month dismissed a court ruling ordering it to reinstate three additional challengers.

With many arrested, detained or convicted on charges related to their political activities, Tunisia’s most well-known opposition figures are also not participating.

That includes the 83-year-old leader of Tunisia’s most well organized political party Ennahda, which rose to power after the Arab Spring. Rached Ghannouchi, the Islamist party’s co-founder and Tunisia’s former house speaker, has been imprisoned since last year after criticizing Saied.

The crackdown also includes one of Ghannouchi’s most vocal detractors: Abir Moussi, a right-wing lawmaker known for railing against Islamists and speaking nostalgically for pre-Arab Spring Tunisia. The 49-year-old president of the Free Destourian Party also was imprisoned last year after criticizing Saied.

Other less known politicians who announced plans to run have also since been jailed or sentenced on similar charges.

Opposition groups have called to boycott the race. The National Salvation Front — a coalition of secular and Islamist parties including Ennahda — has denounced the process as a sham and questioned the election’s legitimacy.

What are the other issues?

The country’s economy continues to face major challenges. Despite Saied’s promises to chart a new course for Tunisia, unemployment has steadily increased to one of the region’s highest at 16%, with young Tunisians hit particularly hard.

Growth has been slow since the COVID-19 pandemic and Tunisia has remained reliant on multilateral lenders such as the World Bank and the European Union. Today, Tunisia owes them more than $9 billion. Apart from agricultural reform, Saied’s overarching economic strategy is unclear.

Negotiations have long been stalled over a $1.9 billion bailout package offered by the International Monetary Fund in 2022. Saied has been unwilling to accept its conditions, which include restructuring indebted state-owned companies and cutting public wages. Some of the IMF’s stipulations — including lifting subsidies for electricity, flour and fuel — would likely be unpopular among Tunisians who rely on their low costs.

Economic analysts say that foreign and local investors are reluctant to invest in Tunisia due to continued political risks and an absence of reassurances.

The dire economic straits have had a two-pronged effect on one of Tunisia’s key political issues: migration. From 2019 to 2023, an increasing number of Tunisians attempted to migrate to Europe without authorization. Meanwhile, Saied’s administration has taken a harsh approach against migrants arriving from sub-Saharan Africa, many who have found themselves stuck in Tunisia while trying to reach Europe.

Saied energized his supporters in early 2023 by accusing migrants of violence and crime and portraying them as part of a plot to change the country’s demography. The anti-migrant rhetoric prompted extreme violence against migrants and a crackdown from authorities. Last year, security forces targeted migrant communities from the coast to the capital with a series of arrests, deportation to the desert and the demolition of tent camps in Tunis and coastal towns.

Bodies continue to wash ashore on Tunisia’s coastline as boats carrying Tunisians and migrants from sub-Saharan Africa manage only to make it a few nautical miles before sinking.

What does it mean overseas?

Tunisia has maintained ties with its traditional Western allies but also forged new partnerships under Saied.

Much like many populist leaders who’ve taken power worldwide, Saied emphasizes sovereignty and freeing Tunisia from what he calls “foreign diktats.” He has insisted that Tunisia won’t become a “border guard” for Europe, which has sought agreements with him to better police the Mediterranean.

Tunisia and Iran lifted visa requirements and in May announced plans to boost trade ties. It has also accepted millions in loans as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative to build hospitals, stadiums and ports. While election monitoring organizations have not been granted permission to observe the race, Russia sent observers.

Yet European countries remain Tunisia’s top trade partners and their leaders have maintained productive ties with Saied, hailing agreements to manage migration as a “model” for the region.

Saied has spoken ardently in support of Palestinians as war has swept the Middle East and opposes moves made to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel.

A massive blast outside Karachi Airport in Pakistan on Sunday killed two people and injured at least eight, officials said.

Police and the provincial government said a tanker exploded outside the airport, which is Pakistan’s biggest.

But the provincial home minister, Zia Ul Hassan, told local TV station Geo that it was an attack targeting foreigners.

A Home Ministry official told The Associated Press that it was an attack on Chinese nationals, one of whom was injured. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Thousands of Chinese workers are in Pakistan, most of them involved in Beijing’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative that connects south and central Asia with the Chinese capital.

Videos showed flames engulfing cars and a thick column of smoke rising from the scene. There was a heavy military deployment at the site, which was cordoned off.

Deputy Inspector General East Azfar Mahesar told media that it seemed like it was an oil tanker explosion.

“We are determining the nature and reasons for the blast. It takes time.” Police officers were among the injured, he added.

The home minister and inspector general also visited the blast site, but they did not talk to the press.

Rahat Hussain, who works in the civil aviation department, said the blast was so big that it shook the airport’s buildings.

Editor’s Note: Help is available if you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or mental health matters. In the US, call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Globally, the International Association for Suicide Prevention and Befrienders Worldwide have contact information for crisis centers around the world.

Advocacy groups behind a so-called suicide capsule said Sunday they have suspended the process of taking applications to use it — which numbered over 370 last month — as a criminal investigation into its first use in Switzerland is completed.

The president of Switzerland-based The Last Resort, Florian Willet, is being held in pretrial detention, said the group and Exit International, an affiliate founded in Australia over a quarter century ago.

Swiss police arrested Willet and several other people following the death of an unidentified 64-year-old woman from the U.S. Midwest who on Sept. 23 became the first person to use the device, known as the “Sarco,” in a forest in the northern Schaffhausen region near the German border.

Others initially detained were released from custody, authorities have said.

Switzerland has some of the most permissive laws in the world when it comes to assisted suicide, though the first use of the Sarco has prompted a debate among lawmakers.

Laws in the rich Alpine country permit assisted suicide so long as the person takes his or her life with no “external assistance” and those who help the person die do not do so for “any self-serving motive.”

The advocacy groups said in a statement Sunday that 371 people were “in the process of applying” to use the Sarco in Switzerland as of Sept. 23 and applications were suspended after its first use.

Exit International, whose founder Dr. Philip Nitschke is based in the Netherlands, is behind the 3D-printed device that cost over $1 million to develop.

The Sarco capsule is designed to allow a person sitting in a reclining seat inside to push a button that injects nitrogen gas from a tank underneath into the sealed chamber, allowing the person to fall asleep and then die by suffocation in a few minutes.

Exit International has said Willet was the only person present at the woman’s death, and described it as “peaceful, fast and dignified.” Those claims could not be independently verified.

On the same day as the woman died, Swiss Health Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider told parliament that use of the Sarco would not be legal. The woman was said to be severely immunocompromised.

Exit says its lawyers in Switzerland believe use of the device is legal.

“Only after the Sarco was used was it learned that Ms. Baume-Schneider had addressed the issue,” the advocacy groups said in the statement Sunday. “The timing was a pure coincidence and not our intention.”

It’s been a year since the deadly fighting between Israel and Hamas began, and the dire humanitarian crisis is getting worse. In addition to ongoing bloodshed in Gaza, the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has intensified across swaths of Lebanon.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN said 70,000 Israeli civilians have evacuated the northern part of their country after an onslaught of Hezbollah rockets and drones. The UN reported that 90,000 Lebanese civilians have fled their homes to avoid Israeli airstrikes.

Meanwhile, hospitals in Gaza continue to struggle with overwhelming casualties and a lack of resources amid Israel’s ongoing operations there. Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed since the fighting began in the aftermath of the Hamas incursion into Israel one year ago. At least 1,200 people were killed in that attack. 250 were taken hostage.

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New Zealand’s navy lost its first ship since World War II after the HMNZS Manawanui sank on a reef off the coast of Samoa on Sunday creating a potential environmental disaster in waters used for fishing and tourism.

The specialist dive and hydrographic vessel lost power and ran aground on Saturday evening while conducting a reef survey one nautical mile off the southern coast of the Samoan island of Upolo, according to New Zealand authorities.

By Sunday morning, the vessel was “listing heavily,” the navy said. Smoke was spotted around 6:40 a.m., and by 9 a.m. the ship had slipped below the surface.

It’s the first unintentional sinking of a New Zealand naval vessel since the Second World War, authorities said, as they opened a court of inquiry into what happened.

Local businesses and conservationists now fear the potential environmental impact of the accident, which occurred in waters off Samoa’s most populated island.

New Zealand Defense Minister Judith Collins told Newstalk ZB that authorities’ first priority was assessing the depth of the vessel and the risk of a spill.

“It’s got a lot of oil on board. …. It’s got lubricating oil, hydro oil, diesel, urea. It’s got a lot of stuff in it. And I don’t think we can just sort of leave it like that,” she said.

Divers were sent to the scene on Sunday night, she said. “They’ll be having a look to see what they can, but it’s going to be quite a big job,” she added.

Acting Samoan Prime Minister Tuala Tevaga Iosefo Ponifasio said in a press statement Sunday that an oil spill was highly probable.

“The HMNZS Manawanui is not recoverable and has sunk into the ocean,” he said.

A reef emergency

Samoan police received a distress call just before 7 p.m. on Saturday night, according to local authorities. Small boats were dispatched with the warning that the ship was taking on water and its crew would likely need evacuating.

Numerous vessels and aircraft were sent to help, including a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-8A Poseidon and C-130J aircraft, the New Zealand navy said.

By 5 a.m. Sunday, all 75 passengers and crew had been rescued, but witnesses said they soon saw smoke rising from the sinking wreck.

“It took 15 minutes for the boat to be fully ablaze and then sink,” he said, adding that local villagers left a Sunday church service to watch the ship.

“They were visibly upset and concerned for their beach, reef, marine reserve and income as fishermen,” Poole said.

New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Luxon said that “environmental spill kits” had been sent from New Zealand to help mitigate and minimize the effects.

The HMNZS Manawanui was a relatively new addition to the New Zealand navy, having been purchased in 2018 for around $100 million NZD ($61 million), though it was built in the early 2000s.

According to the navy, the ship was designed to “survey harbours and approaches prior to larger support ships landing support equipment and personnel whether for combat or disaster relief.”

Africa is home to the world’s largest free trade agreement, in terms of number of countries, territory, and population – the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Fifty-four of 55 African Union member countries have signed up to the deal which covers a market of 1.3 billion people and a combined GDP of $3.4 trillion.

It aims to boost economic growth, intra-African trade and investment across the continent, but although it was established in February 2020, implementing the agreement has been slow.

According to the Economic Commision for Africa, African countries continue to trade with the rest of the world more than among themselves. Inadequate infrastructure, a lack of finance, and weak governance are often to blame.

The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Eleni Giokos: When you took on the job as Secretary General, did you think it was going to be this intense to create so many different standards across the continent, and what was the most challenging aspect of putting this all together?

Wamkele Mene: I don’t think anybody would’ve imagined how challenging and enormous the task is. One of the reasons it’s challenging and will continue to be challenging for a long time is because we are a very, very fragmented market. We have 47 state parties to the agreement establishing the AfCFTA. Hopefully the remaining few countries will ratify soon. Within those 47, we have 42 currencies. We have countries that have a GDP per capita of $110, and then at the (other) end of that spectrum, a GDP per capita of $25,000. We have the least developed countries, we have landlocked countries, we have countries that are at variance from a macroeconomic policy standpoint. So, when you try to integrate and create a single market, economic integration is incredibly difficult.

EG: How has AfCFTA evolved since it came to inception, since it’s been launched on the continent?

WM: We were established in the middle of Covid-19 in February 2020. The following month, March 2020, is when the entire continent of Africa shut down – closure of borders, closure of airports, everything that is an instrument for trade was shut down. For the first six to nine months of the year, it was extremely difficult to get anything done.

Now, we have concluded all the protocols of the agreement – in other words, the legal construct – including very difficult areas such as digital trade; rules of origin of local content for textiles and clothing, for the automotive sector; creating a dispute settlement mechanism for an entire continent of 47 countries trading under the AfCFTA. All these rules are the nuts and bolts of trade, and I am very happy that we are now in transition from negotiating the rules to implementing the rules.

EG: In 2022, seven countries chose to pilot the African Continental Free Trade Area. How is that going, how is that being adopted, are you seeing the actual implementation?

WM: In 2022, seven countries were ready. By readiness, we mean they introduced the customs systems, they gazetted the AfCFTA into their national law. This October (there) will be 37, which means that 37 countries are at a state of readiness and are trading under the rules and the preferences.

EG: A lot of people in the private sector say they don’t really feel the impact of the African Continental Free Trade Area. They don’t, frankly, think it’s working. What do you say to that?

WM: We are integrating a market of 47 countries. The private sector is, as I always say, a co-pillar and a co-driver of market integration on the continent because it’s the private sector that trades. What I would say to them is this: we are overcoming 60 years of market fragmentation. It’s not going to happen overnight. And we know this from the experience of the European Union, which is arguably the most successful market integration model in the world today. It is (31) years since the establishment of the European Union, and yet it still continues to have challenges.

EG: Here’s one of the most controversial issues. Aliko Dangote has been talking about the fact that he needs 35 visas to travel across the African continent. If the richest man in Africa can’t get around easily, who can? How does this hinder people doing business cross-border?

WM: It’s a significant barrier and constraint to intra-Africa trade and intra-Africa investment. There are only four countries that to date have ratified the African Union’s protocol on movement of persons – only four countries. There is an emotional instinct against allowing movement of persons in some countries. In some countries there are legitimate national security concerns. So, we have to work hard to make sure that we convince countries about the importance of moving in the same direction on free movement of persons whilst at the same time addressing the national security concerns that those individual countries have.

EG: Can we even be having this conversation on integration if we don’t actually focus on infrastructure that links the continent up? 

WM: More needs to be done to enable the continent of Africa to have the infrastructure that we need so that these goods can transit through borders seamlessly, efficiently, based on the rules that we have agreed to. So, we look forward to the operationalization of the Lobito corridor (a railway project that links link Angola, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo). All of these trade corridors that are embedded on world-class infrastructure will enable our continent to take drastic steps in boosting intra-Africa trade.

It’s not just about the trade rules, it’s about establishing the supply chain networks, the transport and logistics infrastructure that will support trade.

EG: It’s five years from now: What kind of conversation do you hope to be having with me about where we are?

WM: I think that what I’ve learned over the last four years in this position is that you have to be extremely patient. If in five years time we can demonstrate that we have moved intra-Africa trade from let’s say 15% to 25% or 30%, that will be a very important step forward.

I think we can double intra-Africa trade in the next five years, provided we introduce the tools that are required. So in other words, payment, ensuring that there is ease of access to intra-Africa payments; ensuring at the very minimum (there is) trade supporting infrastructure, particularly in the trade corridors (between) Central Africa, Eastern Africa, Northern Africa; and then third, we combine all of that with the political will and the rules that have been negotiated to create the single market. I believe that we’re going to get there.

In 2018, many (people) around the world, including on the continent of Africa, were saying that these Africans will negotiate forever and that the AfCFTA shall never be signed. And then of course, the AfCFTA was signed in Rwanda in 2018. Then they said it’ll never be ratified, and a year later the agreement was ratified – now 47 countries have ratified it. Now they’re saying that it shall not be implemented. In October, 37 countries will demonstrate implementation when they showcase the goods and the certificates of origin that they are trading in. At every milestone, there’s a new goal post for us to meet.

It is “absolutely impossible” for Communist China to become Taiwan’s motherland because the island’s government is older, Taiwan’s president has said in a carefully timed speech that underscores the intense historical rivalry between the two.

Lai Ching-te, who took office in May, has long faced Beijing’s wrath for championing Taiwan’s sovereignty and rejecting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s claims over the island.

Despite having never controlled Taiwan, China’s ruling Communist Party has vowed to “reunify” with the self-governing democracy, by force if necessary. But many people on the island view themselves as distinctly Taiwanese and have no desire to be part of the People’s Republic of China.

On Saturday, in a move likely to further infuriate Beijing, Lai dug into history to make his point, stressing that Taiwan is already a “sovereign and independent country” called the Republic of China (ROC), whose government ruled mainland China for decades before relocating to Taiwan when the CCP came to power.

The ROC was founded in 1912 after a Nationalist revolution overthrew China’s last imperial dynasty, the Qing. At the time, Taiwan was a Japanese colony, ceded by the Qing dynasty after it lost a war to Imperial Japan nearly two decades earlier.

The ROC later took control of Taiwan in 1945, following Japan’s defeat in World War II. Four years later, its Nationalist government then fled to the island after losing a civil war against Mao Zedong’s Communist forces, moving the seat of the ROC from the mainland to Taipei.

In Beijing, the CCP took power and founded the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on October 1, 1949. Since then, the two sides have been ruled by separate governments.

Successive Chinese leaders have vowed to one day take control of Taiwan. But Xi Jinping, China’s most assertive leader in decades, has ramped up rhetoric and aggression against the democratic island – fueling tension across the strait and raising concerns for a military confrontation.

Speaking at a concert ahead of Taiwan’s national day on October 10, Lai noted the two governments’ different political roots, delivering a lesson in comparative history.

“Recently, our neighbor, the People’s Republic of China, just celebrated its 75th birthday on October 1. In a few days, the Republic of China will celebrate its 113th birthday,” Lai said, receiving to a round of applause from crowds in a stadium in Taipei.

“Therefore, in terms of age, it is absolutely impossible for the People’s Republic of China to become the motherland of the people of the Republic of China. On the contrary, the Republic of China may actually be the motherland of citizens of the People’s Republic of China who are over 75 years old.”

Monday is the last day of China’s week-long national day holiday and the Chinese government has not responded to Lai’s remarks.

But his comments have already drawn criticism from politicians in Taiwan’s largest opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), which has long accused Lai’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party of needlessly stoking tensions with China.

“President Lai has deliberately mentioned ‘People’s Republic of China’ and his ‘motherland theory’ to incite political confrontation on both sides of the Taiwan Strait,” Ling Tao, a city councillor from the KMT, wrote in a post on Facebook.

The KMT are the political successors of the Nationalists who fled to Taiwan, ruled the island under martial law for decades and long harbored ambitions to one day restore the Republic of China on the mainland. They later joined Taiwan’s evolution into a democracy and have made significant ideological transformations, including favoring closer ties with Communist China.

Leaders in both Taipei and Beijing have long used their national day addresses to send a message across the Taiwan Strait.

Last week, on the eve of the PRC’s 75th birthday, Xi reiterated his pledge to achieve “reunification” with Taiwan.

“It’s an irreversible trend, a cause of righteousness and the common aspiration of the people. No one can stop the march of history,” Xi told a state banquet at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, according to state-run news agency Xinhua.

“Taiwan is China’s sacred territory. Blood is thicker than water, and people on both sides of the strait are connected by blood,” he said, vowing to resolutely oppose “Taiwan independence” separatist activities.

Beijing has labeled Lai a “dangerous separatist,” and tensions have ratcheted up over the last five months since Lai’s inauguration in May, during which he called on China to cease its intimidation of Taiwan.

Lai is expected to give his first national day address as Taiwan’s president on Thursday.