Kais Saied

Saied was one of the first declared candidates in the 2019 Tunisian presidential election. Running as an Independent social conservative, he has sought to appeal to younger voters. One of his policies included support for allowing citizens to recall their elected officials. Saied suggested to voters that many of Tunisia's current issues were due to "non-respect for many constitutional laws". He presented a plan to combat corruption, whether it is "moral or financial". Saied was supported by both Islamists and leftists.

In a June 2019 interview with the newspaper Acharaâ Al Magharibi, Saied announced his support for the death penalty. He also made statements that homosexuality, or rather its public expression, is financed and encouraged by foreign countries, telling the paper:

Saied received 620,711 votes in the first round of the 2019 Tunisian presidential election, coming in first place, and moved on to face Karoui in the second round. He was announced on 14 October as the new President of Tunisia, winning the second round with 72.71% of the vote. He took office nine days later, becoming only the second president who was not an heir to the legacy of the country's founding president, Habib Bourguiba.

Saied was sworn in as Tunisia's president on 23 October 2019. He is the first president born after the country gained independence from France in 1956.

The regime being semi-presidential, Kais Saied has a week after his inauguration to instruct the party which took the lead in the legislative elections to form a government. The latter then has a month to obtain the confidence of the Assembly of People's Representatives. On 15 November 2019, he appointed Habib Jemli, candidate for Ennahdha, to the post of head of government and charged him with forming a cabinet. On 10 January 2020, the Assembly rejected the composition of the government, which was also subject to delays when it was announced. Saied therefore has ten days to appoint a new head of government. On 20 January 2020, he appointed Elyes Fakhfakh.

In 2016 the Mouassissoun movement was created to support Saied's action and projects.

While a visiting professor at several Arab universities, in 2013 he refused to be part of the commission of experts whose mission was to find a legal solution to the problem of the Independent High Authority for Elections. He retired in 2018.

From 2013–2014 Kais Saied participated in several political clubs and meetings, which bring together young people.

Director of the public law department at the University of Sousse between 1994 and 1999, then at the Faculty of Juridical, Political and Social Sciences of Tunis of the University of Carthage from 1999 to 2018, he was a member of the group of experts of the General Secretariat of the Arab League between 1989 and 1990, expert at the Arab Institute for Human Rights from 1993 to 1995 and member of the committee of experts responsible for revising the draft Tunisian Constitution in 2014 . He was also a member of the scientific council of several commissions academics.

A jurist by formation, he is a specialist in constitutional law, and secretary-general of the Tunisian Association of Constitutional Law between 1990 and 1995 then vice-president of the association since 1995.

Kais Saied is the son of Moncef Saied and Zakia Bellagha from Béni Khiar (Cap Bon). According to Saied, his late father protected the young Gisèle Halimi from the Nazis. Her mother, although educated, is a housewife. His family is of rather modest, but intellectual origin and member of the middle class. His paternal uncle, Hicham Saïed, is the first pediatric surgeon in Tunisia, known worldwide for having separated from the Siamese in the 1970s.

Kais Saied (Arabic: قَيس سَعِيد ‎; born 22 February 1958) is a Tunisian politician, statesman, jurist and former lecturer serving as the fifth President of Tunisia since October 2019. He was president of the Tunisian Association of Constitutional Law from 1995 to 2019. An independent candidate in the 2019 presidential election, he was elected against Nabil Karoui in the second round.