Tunisian election to entrench president's rule

FILE PHOTO: Tunisian President Kais Saied arrives to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (not pictured) during the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C, U.S., December 14, 2022. Mandel Ngan/Pool via REUTERS

TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia holds a parliamentary election on Saturday that will tighten President Kais Saied's grip on power, capping what his opponents denounce as a march to one-man rule over a country that shook off dictatorship in 2011.

Taking place 12 years to the day after Tunisian vegetable seller Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in an act of protest that sparked the Arab Spring, the ballot bolsters a new political order following Saied's dissolution last year of the previous legislature.