Tunisia passes law to strip courts of power over election authority appointed by president

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisia’s parliament amended a law on Friday, stripping power from courts over decisions made by an embattled election authority whose members are appointed by President Kais Saied.

Nine days before the presidential election, a majority of members of parliament voted in favor of amending the young democracy’s first election law as the election authority remains in conflict with courts demanding that it returns three candidates to the ballot.

The move sparked anger from opposition and civil society groups, which say the election authority has acted in concert with Saied to ensure he faces little competition in winning a second term.

Demonstrators picketed in protest of the law outside of parliament throughout Friday.

Since becoming the first country to topple an authoritarian leader in last decade’s Arab Spring, Tunisia has had two presidential elections that observers have judged as democratic. However, the lead-up to this year’s vote has been tainted by quarreling in recent weeks, between the court and the Independent High Authority for Elections, or ISIE.

ISIE’s role came under scrutiny after it dismissed a judicial ruling ordering it to reinstate three potential challengers to Saied who it had left off the ballot, claiming the campaign filings each submitted were incomplete.

Its decision to leave Monther Zenaidi, Abdellatif Mekki and Imed Daimi off of the ballot is among several actions that civil society groups in Tunisia have protested during election season. Both before and afterward, other candidates have been arrested or barred from participation.

Before Friday’s vote, members of parliament accused the court that ordered the candidates to be reinstated of non-neutrality. Some said that its judges were puppets acting on behalf of unnamed foreign interests and parties, echoing the populist and conspiracy theory-laden rhetoric Saied has long employed against his opponents.

Zina Jiballah, an independent member of parliament, argued that “some parties get their orders from abroad,” alleging members of the court have a different agenda.

The North African country’s president has throughout his tenure accused civil society and opposition groups critical of his governance of having nefarious motives and being puppets of foreign countries.

“History will remember that we are not sellers of countries and that Tunisia was saved by honest men and women,” said Sonia Benmabrouk, of the Hope and Work Party during Friday’s debate.

Saied, a 66-year-old populist who won his first term in 2019, will ask voters next weekend to grant him five more years in office.

With the country’s most prominent opposition figures imprisoned, he faces two little known candidates — businessman Ayachi Zammel and Zouhair Maghzaoui, a member of parliament who had previously thrown his support behind the president.

Zammel is in prison on election fraud charges that have been leveled at several Saied opponents.

A supporter of Tunisian President and candidate for re-election Kais Saied meets with residents of a neighbourhood during a campaign tour, in Ariana, Tunisia, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Anis Mili)

Members of the opposition and civil society groups shout slogans and wave placards during a demonstration against Tunisia president Kais Saied, ahead of the upcoming presidential elections, in Tunis, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Anis Mili)

Members of the opposition and civil society groups shout slogans and wave placards during a demonstration against Tunisia president Kais Saied, ahead of the upcoming presidential elections, in Tunis, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Anis Mili)

An election banner for Tunisian president and candidate for re-election Kais Saied pictured in Tunis ahead of the upcoming presidential elections, in Tunis, Tunisia, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Anis Mili)

Supporters of Tunisian President and candidate for re-election Kais Saied meet with residents of a neighbourhood during a campaign tour, in Ariana, Tunisia, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Anis Mili)

People ride the Metro as it shows banners of the Election Committee, ahead of the upcoming presidential elections, in the capital Tunis, Tunisia, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Anis Mili)

Supporters of Tunisian President and candidate for re-election Kais Saied meet with residents of a neighbourhood during a campaign tour, in Ariana, Tunisia, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Anis Mili)

Supporters of Tunisian President and candidate for re-election Kais Saied meet with residents of a neighbourhood during a campaign tour, in Ariana, Tunisia, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Anis Mili)

Tunisian presidential candidate Zouhair El Maghzaoui, meets with residents of a neighbourhood during his campaign tour, ahead of the upcoming presidential elections, in Tunis, Tunisia, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Anis Mili)

Members of the opposition and civil society groups shout slogans and wave placards during a demonstration against Tunisia president Kais Saied, ahead of the upcoming presidential elections, in Tunis, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. Banner in Arabic reads: "We will not forgive, we will not forget." (AP Photo/Anis Mili)

A Tunisian woman shouts slogans during a demonstration against Tunisia president Kais Saied, ahead of the upcoming presidential elections, in Tunis, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Anis Mili)

Emergency workers in Florida, Georgia and elsewhere rescued hundreds of people from boats, their homes and their cars as Hurricane Helene's winds, rain and storm surge created havoc Friday on the Gulf of Mexico, in coastal neighborhoods and further inland.

The efforts of Florida's 1,500 search-and-rescue personnel will be concentrated on securing and stabilizing affected communities through the weekend, said Kevin Guthrie, the state's emergency operations director. The Category 4 storm made landfall on the Northwest Florida coast late Thursday, but it created flooding from storm surge all along the state's Gulf Coast.

“As those sorts of rescue missions happen today, and continue, please do not go out and visit the impacted areas,” Guthrie said Friday morning at a news conference in the Florida capital of Tallahassee. “I beg of you, do not get in their way.”

The reported rescues ranged from life-threatening situations to people trapped in their homes by waist-high water and unable to flee on their own.

Five people died in Pinellas County and dozens were rescued after the storm surge hit an unprecedented 8 feet (2.4 meters), forcing some to seek shelter in their attics. Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said the deaths all occurred in neighborhoods where authorities told residents to evacuate, but many residents ignored the warnings.

He said survivors told deputies they didn’t believe the warnings after other residents told them the surge wouldn’t be that bad.

“We made our case. We told people what they needed to do, and they chose otherwise,” Gualtieri said.

Gualtieri said his deputies tried overnight to reach those who had been trapped, but in some neighborhoods it just wasn’t safe. Pinellas County includes St. Petersburg.

“I was out there personally. We tried to launch boats, we tried to use high-water vehicles and we just met with too many obstacles,” Gualtieri said. He said the death toll could rise as emergency crews go door-to-door in the flooded areas to see if anyone remains.

In neighboring Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa, the sheriff’s office rescued more than 300 people overnight from storm surge. Spokesperson Amanda Granit said those included a 97-year-old woman with dementia and her 63-year-old daughter, who got surprised by the surge and needed help fleeing their flooded home; and a 19-year-old woman whose car got stuck as she drove in the rising water and couldn’t get out.

Granit said deputies were conducting rescues in such large numbers they had to request county transit buses to get the people to safety.

“Deputies couldn’t move them fast in enough in their patrol vehicles,” Granit said.

In the Tampa Bay-area city of South Pasadena, rescue video shows a house burning early Friday amid flooded streets. Other counties along the Gulf reported more than 100 rescues.

The Coast Guard said it rescued three boaters and their pets from the storm in separate incidents. In a Thursday helicopter rescue captured on Coast Guard video, a man and his Irish setter were stranded 25 miles offshore in the Gulf on their 36-foot sailboat in heavy seas.

The video shows the man putting his dog into a yellow rescue vest and pushing it into the raging sea before jumping in himself. A Coast Guard swimmer helped them into a rescue basket and they were hoisted into the copter.

In North Carolina, more than 100 swift-water rescues had occurred as Helene's rains caused massive flooding Friday, particularly in the state's western section. Gov. Roy Cooper said the flash floods are threatening lives and are creating numerous landslides.

“The priority now is saving lives,” Cooper said, begging people to stay off the roads unless they were seeking higher ground.

“With the rain that they already had been experiencing before Helene’s arrival, this is one of the worst storms in modern history for parts of western North Carolina,” Cooper said.

In Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp said crews are working to rescue people trapped in more than 115 homes.

Helene's rains flooded homes in Hanover West, a neighborhood in north Atlanta. Emergency personnel rescued several people from their homes, said Richard Simms, a resident in a nearby neighborhood.

This photo provided by Venice Police Department rescue crews assist residents after conducting door-to-door wellness checks, in coastal areas that were flooded by Hurricane Helene on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024 in Venice, Fla . (Venice Police Department via AP)

This photo provided by Venice Police Department rescue crews assist residents after conducting door-to-door wellness checks, in coastal areas that were flooded by Hurricane Helene on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024 in Venice, Fla . (Venice Police Department via AP)

This photo provided by Venice Police Department rescue crews assist residents after conducting door-to-door wellness checks, in coastal areas that were flooded by Hurricane Helene on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024 in Venice, Fla . (Venice Police Department via AP)