Tesh Sidi

Teslem Andala Ubbi (born 30 May 1994), better known as Tesh Sidi (Arabic: تسلم سيدي), is a Sahrawi-Spanish computer engineer and politician. Having been an activist for Sahrawi independence, she was elected as an MP in the Congress of Deputies as number three on the lists of Sumar for Madrid after being nominated by Más Madrid, with whom she had previously attempted to run with for the 2023 Madrilenian regional election.

Early life

Tesh Sidi was born in the Sahrawi refugee camps located on Tindouf, Algeria on 30 May 1994. She was raised with her grandmother in Mauritania between the ages of four and seven following a Bedouin lifestyle, with her later returning to Tindouf. She moved to Alicante at the age of 12 to live with a foster family with whom she had already spent several summers, with her leaving her foster family at the age of 18 to work and study on her own.

She studied a degree in Computer Engineering at the University of Alicante while working as a waitress or shop assistant during the 2008 Spanish financial crisis, with friends helping her to be able to pay for the degree. She moved to Madrid after grauduating, finding work during the computing boom. She obtained a loan to pursue a Master in Big Data and Artificial Intelligence at the European University of Madrid, which she later finished.

Early career

After the outbreak of the Western Saharan clashes in 2020 as part of the Western Sahara conflict, Tesh started to get more interested and aware about her origins and the Saharawi cause and got involved in activism for the right to self-determination of the Saharawi people, assuming the presidency of the Saharawi Association in Madrid. She later created SaharawisToday, a digital communication platform specialized in the Sahrawi conflict.

Tesh Sidi participated in the 16th Congress of the POLISARIO Front as a congresswoman, in addition to covering the process for her media outlet. Tesh is not part of the leadership or militancy of the Polisario Front, but she still considers that the organization "represents all Sahrawis".

Political career

Tesh joined Más Madrid's list as number 11 for the 2023 Madrilenian regional election. However, she was finally rejected by the Electoral Commission of Madrid due to a problem in the electoral census in which she appeared registered in Málaga instead of Madrid. Tesh justified herself by saying that she was registered "by mistake" in the Málaga register while trying to register her mother, who came to Spain after having an accident in which a wall fell and broke both her legs, also indicating that Citizen Services office in Madrid told her that her register in Madrid was correct.

She was later announced as number three on the lists of Sumar for Madrid on behalf of Más Madrid, in a move considered a nod to the pro-Sahrawi movement in Spain and Yolanda Díaz distancing herself from Pedro Sánchez's pro-Moroccan position. If elected she would be the first Sahrawi woman to be represented in the Congress of Deputies and the first Sahrawi since the Spanish Transition. Her presence was criticized by the Moroccan press and celebrated by Polisario Front's delegate in Spain Abdullah Arabi.

Personal life

She obtained Spanish nationality in June 2022 after 20 years of uninterrupted residence in Spain. Tesh also has the nationality of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, not recognized by Spain, which brought her administrative problems until her situation was regularized.

Electoral history