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The president of Tunisia is the head of state of Tunisia, directly elected to a five-year term by the people. The officeholder leads the executive branch of the Tunisian government along with the prime minister and is the commander-in-chief of the Tunisian Armed Forces.
Since the office was established in 1957, Five men have served as president. The seventh and current president is Kais Saied since 23 October 2019. There are currently three living former presidents. The most recent former president to die was Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, on 19 September 2019.
The presidency of Mohamed Ennaceur, who assumed the office as acting president following the death of incumbent president Beji Caid Essebsi, was the shortest in Tunisian history (90 days). Habib Bourguiba, the inaugural holder, served the longest, over thirty years (1957–1987), before he was removed from office by his prime minister Ben Ali, on 7 November 1987. Since the ratification of the Tunisian Constitution in 2014, no person may be elected president more than twice.
Of those who have served as the nation's president, only one died in office of natural causes (Beji Caid Essebsi), two were removed from office (Habib Bourguiba and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali) and two assumed the office as acting presidents (Fouad Mebazaa and Mohamed Ennaceur).
Tunisia has had seven presidents since the proclamation of the republic on 25 July 1957:
No. | Portrait | Name (Birth–Death) | Term of office | Party | Election | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() | Habib Bourguiba (1903–2000) | 25 July 1957 – 7 November 1987 | Neo-Destour | Interim | Parliament abolished the monarchy and designated Prime Minister Bourguiba as interim president. | |
1959 | Bourguiba won the first presidential election in Tunisia's history. | ||||||
SDP | 1964 | Bourguiba won his second presidential term. | |||||
1969 | Bourguiba won his third and last presidential term according to the constitution. | ||||||
1974 | After this election, Bourguiba proclaimed himself president for life. | ||||||
2 | ![]() | Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (1936–2019) | 7 November 1987 – 14 January 2011 | SDP | Interim | Following the 1987 coup d'état, Prime Minister Ben Ali took office as interim president. | |
DCR | 1989 | Ben Ali won the first presidential election in 15 years. | |||||
1994 | Ben Ali won his second presidential term. | ||||||
1999 | Ben Ali won his third presidential term and Tunisia's first pluralist presidential election. | ||||||
2004 | Ben Ali won his fourth presidential term after being allowed according to the 2002 constitutional referendum. | ||||||
2009 | Ben Ali won his fifth and last presidential term before being deposed. [1] | ||||||
3 | ![]() | Fouad Mebazaa (b. 1933) | 15 January 2011 – 13 December 2011 | DCR [a] | Interim | Mebazaa, as speaker of Parliament, became interim president following the removal of Ben Ali by Constitutional Council. | |
Independent | Mebazaa's term was extended until the election of a Constituent Assembly after the constitution was repealed. | ||||||
4 | ![]() | Moncef Marzouki (b. 1945) | 13 December 2011 – 31 December 2014 | CFR | 2011 | Marzouki was not elected directly, but was elected temporarily by the Constituent Assembly until the next election. | |
5 | ![]() | Beji Caid Essebsi (1926–2019) | 31 December 2014 – 25 July 2019 † | Nidaa Tounes | 2014 | Essebsi won the first two-round presidential election, and was the first president to die in office. | |
6 | ![]() | Mohamed Ennaceur (b. 1934) | 25 July 2019 – 23 October 2019 | Nidaa Tounes | Interim | Ennaceur, as speaker of Parliament, became interim president following the death of President Beji Caid Essebsi. | |
7 [b] | ![]() | Kais Saied (b. 1958) | 23 October 2019 – Incumbent | Independent | 2019 | Saied won the first presidential election in which a presidential debate was held. | |
2024 | Saied won his second presidential term. The first president to be reelected in 15 years. |
Rank | President | Time in office |
---|---|---|
1 | Habib Bourguiba | 30 years, 105 days |
2 | Zine El Abidine Ben Ali | 23 years, 68 days |
3 | Kais Saied | 5 years, 120 days |
4 | Beji Caid Essebsi | 4 years, 206 days |
5 | Moncef Marzouki | 3 years, 18 days |
6 | Fouad Mebazaa (Acting President) | 332 days |
7 | Mohamed Ennaceur (Acting President) | 90 days |