Nail-Biter: Election Day in Tunisia

Actually, it's not a nail-biter at all. It was election day today, but nobody has ever doubted the outcome: President Zine El Albidine Ben Ali will win. The real question is whether he will break the 90% barrier. Back in the good old days of his first three presidential elections, he received between 99.2% and 99.7% of the vote. Support for President Ben Ali apparently plummeted in 2004 when he squeaked by with 94%. Will he break the 90% barrier for a fifth five-year term? Why not. If Tunisia can change the constitution to keep him in power when he would have been constitutionally barred from being reelected, it can surely cobble together a measly 90%.

The scene in Tunis was interesting today, to say the least. I have never seen so many police on the streets; they were everywhere. But Tunisians were going about their business as though it were any other day. There were no celebrations or demonstrations -- at least that I saw, and I was around the city center nearly all day. Just Tunisians walking about and sitting at cafes as hordes of policemen -- many of whom toted gigantic guns -- looked on.

Technically, all these guys in the foreground in the photo below were running for president. (Other potential candidates were barred from running.) But this picture sums it up pretty well:
All four have their own pictures, but only President Ben Ali has the additional massive poster looming behind the others.

And that was far from the only gigantic picture of the President. There were so many flags, banners, posters and billboards that you couldn't look down a street, or in a shop, or up at the sky, without seeing the president staring back at you.
The one above is a double dipper: Ben Ali on top and another Ben Ali underneath. The above photo was taken near one end of the main street in Tunis. This next one was taken near the other end.
I think this next picture captures the scene the best. It's just any old cafe, but there's the ominous Ben Ali banner looking out at you... and a policeman keeping watch from a distance.
I had been told that Tunisians aren't willing to say much about politics to strangers, or in public. I found that to be true today. Nobody I asked would offer an opinion about the president or the election.

UPDATE: Revolution is in the air! President Ben Ali was reelected with only 89.6% of the vote, a slap in the face by the people of Tunisia. (Actually, I have no idea what it means, but it is indeed less than 90%.)