President of the Republic of Tunisia | |
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رئيس الجمهورية التونسية | |
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since 23 October 2019 | |
Executive branch of the Government of the Republic of Tunisia Head of state of the Republic of Tunisia | |
Style | His Excellency |
Type | Head of state Head of government (de facto) |
Residence | Palace of the Republic, Carthage |
Term length | Five years, renewable once |
Inaugural holder | Habib Bourguiba |
Formation | 25 July 1957 |
Salary | US$90,380 annually[1] |
Website | www |
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The president of Tunisia, officially the president of the Republic of Tunisia (Arabic: رئيس الجمهورية التونسية Reīs ej-Jumhūrīye et-Tūnsīye), is the head of state since the creation of the position on 25 July 1957. In this capacity, he exercises executive power with the assistance of a government headed by the Prime Minister in a presidential system. According to Article 87 of the 2022 Constitution, he is the commander-in-chief of the Tunisian Armed Forces.[2] Under the Constitution, the president is elected by direct universal suffrage for a term of five years, renewable once.
The first president of the Tunisian Republic was Habib Bourguiba,[3] who remained in power for 30 years until he was removed through the white coup of 7 November 1987,[4] by his Prime Minister Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who appointed himself President of the Republic, and in turn remained in power for 23 years, until his fall in The Tunisian revolution on 14 January 2011.[5] He then appointed Fouad Mebazaa as interim president, until he handed over power on 13 December 2011 to the politician Moncef Marzouki,[6] the first democratic president in the country’s history, who was elected by the Constituent Assembly.[7]
Marzouki handed over power on 31 December 2014 to his successor, Beji Caid Essebsi, who won the 2014 presidential elections,[8] thus becoming the second directly democratically elected president in the history of Tunisia, until his death on 25 July 2019,[9] with Parliament Speaker Mohamed Ennaceur assuming the presidency temporarily until presidential elections are held.[10] Bourguiba and Ben Ali also headed the ruling party, called the Neo Destour, Socialist Destourian Party then the Democratic Constitutional Rally, from independence in 1956 until the Tunisian revolution in 2011, when the President of the Republic must abandon his party status if he wins the presidency. The 2022 Tunisian constitutional referendum transformed Tunisia into a presidential republic, giving the president sweeping powers while largely limiting the role of the parliament. The current President of the Republic of Tunisia is Kais Saied, since 23 October 2019.[11]