News - Middle East: Tunisians have called for free and fair elections to remove Saudi-allied President Kais Saied, who is accused of staging a coup last year.

Samir Dilou, a member of Tunisia's Salvation Front, told a local radio station on Monday that the front wants the naming of an alternative for Kais Saied “by the Tunisian elite in fair and genuine elections and not in the December 17’s elections.”

He condemned the “individual rule” adopted by the president, saying he granted himself “pharaonic powers.”

Dilou also vowed that the front would continue its “peaceful struggle” against the regime of Saied, which he blamed for the country’s crises.

Meanwhile, the Free Constitutional Party announced that it filed a complaint with a Tunisian court to halt the December 17 elections.

It said in a statement that the complaint came as “the electoral commission did not receive any nomination in seven out of 161 constituencies”, describing that as “a serious precedent that acknowledges the lack of the citizens’ involvement” in the electoral process.

Shahid Observatory expected a low turnout in the upcoming legislative elections.