Tunisians go to polls in election set to cement rule of strongman president

Opposition groups are boycotting vote that one prominent party leader describes as ‘a still-born farce’

Tunisians return to the polls on Saturday, 11 years to the day since a vendor’s self-immolation sparked the fall of their ruling tyrant and triggered a wave of popular revolts across north Africa and the Middle East.

In the troubled decade since, other regional states that once cracked under the strain of popular revolts have been increasingly smothered by counterrevolutions that clawed back civic gains and political freedoms championed by their citizens.