2019 Tunisian presidential election

In April 2019, incumbent President Beji Caid Essebsi said that he would not seek re-election, opening the candidate field to other candidates. However, Essebsi died on 25 July at age 92, with five months left in his term. The President of the Assembly of the Representatives of the People, Mohamed Ennaceur, became interim president, according to the Constitutional provision for presidential succession.^[5] According to Article 84 of the Tunisian constitution, an interim president may serve for a maximum of 90 days, meaning Ennaceur's role was due to expire on 23 October 2019.^[6] In order to comply with this, the High Authority for Elections announced the election will be held sooner than scheduled,^[7] being moved up from 17 and 24 November to 15 September and 13 October.^[8]

The President of Tunisia is directly elected by universal suffrage using the two-round system. If no candidate receives a majority of the vote in the first round, a second round is held between the top two candidates.^[9] Candidates must be at least 35 years old on the day of filing for candidacy, and are also required to be Muslim. Candidates must have Tunisian citizenship, and are required give up any other citizenship they hold.

For the first time in the country's history, presidential election debates were held in Tunisia. Organised by the Munathara Initiative and sanctioned by Tunisia's election authority, ISIE, the debates were held on 7, 8 and 9 September 2019. The debates were broadcast on 11 public and private Tunisian TV channels, on Al Jazeera, as well as on Algerian, Libyan, and Iraqi TV stations.^[42] Some three million viewers, or 42 percent of the country's registered voters, followed the first debate. The figure does not include live streaming audiences or audiences outside Tunisia.^[43]