Zine El Abidine Ben Ali Ben Ali was re-elected for a fifth term with 89% of the vote. The African Union sent a team of observers to cover the election. The delegation was led by Benjamin Bounkoulou, who described the election as "free and fair". However, a spokesperson from the US State Department indicated that Tunisia had not permitted monitoring of the election by international observers, but that the U.S. was still committed to working with the Ben Ali and the Tunisian government. There also were reports of mistreatment of an opposition candidate. In December 2010 and January 2011, riots over unemployment escalated into a
Benjamin Bounkoulou line with the African Union's standards", and he called for the results to be respected. Shortly before the July 2009 presidential election, Bounkoulou stressed the importance of having a peaceful election and urged the people to behave in a responsible and civic manner so that the election would be an example to Africa and the world. He headed the African Union's observer mission for the October 2009 Tunisian election and expressed approval of the election, saying that voters were not pressured to vote for President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Seeking another term in the Senate in the October 2011