He succeeded assassinated President Anwar Sadat and led Egypt for 30 years.

Hosni Mubarak spent years in court after being deposed as Egypt’s fourth president.

He was found guilty of complicity in killing protestors during the Arab spring revolution but that conviction was overturned and he was freed in 2017.

The former air force commander was often likened to the Sphinx  but he was brought down by the poverty, corruption and repressive police tactics that marked his rule.

He underwent surgery last month and appeared to have recovered when he was photographed with his grandson.

Egyptian state news has confirmed his death in a military hospital.

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This follows the jailing this week of a social media commentator who’s remarks critical of Morocco society are deemed to have insulted King Mohammed VI.

In addition to four years in jail, You Tuber Mohamed Sekkai was fined R60 000.

He will appeal the sentence.

Journalist Omar Radi is in jail awaiting trial on charges of insulting a judge in a tweet he sent.

The king, who surrendered certain powers during the Arab Spring of 2011, has evidently kept a tight rein on critics.

A student was jailed for three years in 2017 for allegedly undermining the dignity of one of Africa’s two remaining absolute monarchs.

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Kaïs Saïed’s first response to his election win has been to thank your Tunisians for turning a new page in the country’s history.

Saïed says that in the only democracy to have emerged from the 2011 Arab Spring confidence must be renewed between the people and their rulers.

Nabl Karoui says he’ll wait until the  electoral commission officially calls the results today  before deciding whether to contest the outcome.

The millionaire businessman and philanthropist spent all but the last four days of the campaign in jail awaiting trial on tax evasion  and money laundering charges.

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The polling is a week ahead of the second round of the presidential contest that will determine the future of the only democracy to have emerged from the Arab Spring eight years ago.

Analysts are paying particular attention to the turnout in today’s poll.

Fewer than half of the seven million Tunisian voters cast their ballots in the first round of the Presidential election last month.

This indicated the disillusionment with current political reality as much as the choice of two outsiders to contest the run-off.

Many young Tunisians are staying away, believing the politicians don’t have an answer for the economic stagnation hamstringing their Mediterranean Arab country.

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Ben Ali brought stability and a measure of prosperity to Tunisia but he grossly disregarded political freedom and human rights.

There are mixed reactions in Tunisia to the death of Ben Ali.

The North African country is in the throes of a Presidential and parliamentary election.

Tunisian credit Ben Ali with pushing their country into a leading role in Africa and the Arab world.

When his despotism and corruption brought Tunisians onto the streets with  mass protests, he offered to reform and to stand down at the next scheduled election, but it was too late.

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Facing charges of tax evasion and money laundering, he is favoured to win more  votes than the 25 other candidates in the race.

It’s unlikely Nabil Karoui will win an outright majority to succeed the late President Beji Caid Essebsi who died in July.

The question is whether he will face trial, on what his supporters insist are politically motivated charges, before the run-off  that will follow  next month’s parliamentary election.

Karoui has gone on hunger strike demanding that he be released to cast his ballot.

This all adds confusion and tension in the only democracy to have emerged from the  Arab Spring eight years ago.

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But there have been two empty spaces left on the television stage – one for a candidate who is in jail awaiting trial and another for a presidential hopeful who is in exile.

Tunisia is used to breaking now ground in the North African and Arab world.

The television debates give an American flavour to the race to succeed President Bejii Caid Essebsi who died in July.

They’re being covered by 11 television channels and  20 radio stations that spearheaded  the 2011 Arab Spring that began in Tunisia.

Campaigning is reaching fever pitch despite some security fears on the country’s western border with Algeria where there has been a wave of violence by terror groups. 

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Prediciting the outcome is impossible with 26 candidates in the field .

Tunisia is where the Arab Spring began in 2011.

Many of the voters in the election on September 15 were barely out of diapers when their compatriots rose up and overthrew the dictate Ben Ali.

Political space has opened up despite some terrorist attacks that have repelled tourists that are vital to this country  within sight of Europe.

But is the poor economic performance that preoccupies voters.

They are looking for concrete proposals from the candidates for ways of increasing growth and cutting unemployment that is preventing Tunsians from enjoying their democratic dividend.  

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The Parliamentary speaker from the North African country, Mohammed  Ennaceur, has been sworn in as interim president until elections in October.

Bejii Caid Essebsi is Tunisia’s first democratically-elected president.

He became Prime Minister after Beni Ali was deposed in the Arab Spring of 2011.

Three years later, Essebsi was elected President.

He opened the political space but was unable to bring the property he promised because of sporadic terrorist attacks by Islamist fundamentalist groups that crippled the tourism industry which is the biggest foreign currency earner for the picturesque country nestled between  Libya and Algeria with views of Europe across the Mediterranean.

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An Egyptian referendum has overwhelming given new muscle to strongman President Abdelfattah El Sisi.

It has endorsed a law allowing the former military commander, who came to power in  a 2014 coup, to stay at the helm until 2030.

The referendum was a popularity test for Abdelfattah el Sisi who is now firmly entrenched as another dictatorial  Egyptian leader.

His compatriots voted by 89 percent to 11 to extend his term in office and give him sweeping new powers over parliament and the judiciary.

The turnout in three days of voting that ended last Monday was 44 percent.

Opposition and human rights groups say El Sisi’s regime is more oppressive than that of Hosni Mubarak who unseated by the 2011 Arab Spring.

And they fear things will only get worse. 

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