Summary:

On 11 September 2024, President Kais Saied held a swearing-in ceremony for 24 new governors appointed in a reshuffle that touched every governorate in the country.

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The changes included some governors being assigned to new governor roles in other regions and others being replaced altogether. 

The ceremony included a speech that the President delivered to the new governors to emphasize the need to preserve the unity of the state and to work with discretion.  

The President also insisted that the governors be a model, inside and outside of their offices, and that delegates and district heads must work under the direction of the governor in perfect harmony. 

The speech included instructions that governors are to be at the service of citizens “at all hours” as some citizens cannot always reach public services. 

Outlook: 

This reshuffle is just the latest in a string this summer: May replacement of the Interior Minister and others, August replacement of the Prime Minister, and the late August replacement of 19 additional senior ministers. 

President Saied is using his previously appointed officials as a scapegoat to maintain the support of his popular base. By summarily firing senior officials, he exonerates himself of any wrongdoing while showing his base a willingness to take decisive action.  

In emphasizing publicly the need for the new governors to be at the service of citizens, the President continued his effort to speak directly to the desires of Tunisian citizens as means to build support heading into the election. 

The profiles of the new governors point to the President’s new tendency to appoint experienced officials from within the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Justice. This reflects a move away from the President’s bottom-up project that once consisted of naming his supporters as governors and instead toward the reemergence of the old state regime based on the centralization of power through the security and justice apparatuses. 

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