Sri Lankans will vote on Saturday for their next president, who will be key to deciding the future of reforms in a nation slowly emerging from worst financial crisis in decades.

Sri Lankans who usually vote along religious and ethnic lines will be keeping the state of the economy in mind when they vote Saturday on a new president.

Zammel’s sentencing is the latest step in a pre-poll crackdown that has extinguished hopes of a fair vote in Tunisia. The country had previously been considered the only example of a successful transition to democracy to have emerged from among the Arab countries that rose up against dictatorship in 2011.