Opposition parties boycotted the election, calling it a sham amid a deteriorating political climate and authoritarian drift in the birthplace of the Arab Spring more than a decade ago.
In 2011, the world was shaken by the Arab Spring, a wave of "pro-democracy" protests that spread throughout the Middle East and North Africa. The effects of the uprisings reverberated around the world as regimes fell in some countries, and civil war began in others. This week, we revisit the years leading up to the Arab Spring and its lasting impact on three people who lived through it.
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President Kais Saied plunged the country into uncertainty after shutting down parliament and firing the prime minister as well as the country's defense and justice ministers.
Hopes from the Arab Spring have mostly been dashed. But the era led to "a radical change in the way people think about the authorities, the state, and about their rights," says an Egyptian journalist.
The Arab Spring uprising led to a transition to democracy in Tunisia, but young people decry widespread corruption and a lack of job opportunities. It's led to protests, including self-immolation.
