Tunisia sets elections for October. The increasingly authoritarian president hasn’t said he’ll run

Associated Press

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisia’s increasingly authoritarian leader has scheduled the next presidential election for October without saying whether he will seek a second term. President Kais Saied has had five tumultuous years at the head of the North African nation once seen as a model of democracy for the Arab world. Saied set Oct. 6 for the election in a decree issued late Tuesday. His first term ends on Oct. 23. The election will be voters’ first chance to evaluate Saied’s tenure amid an economic crisis and the drift into authoritarianism.