Turnout in the local elections held in Tunisia this Sunday was only 5.18% at noon, in line with the high abstention in votes called for by the president. Kaid Saidthe highest rates of any democratic transition since taking full power.
Young Jihad Adin Ben Salem, who claims to have exercised his right to vote even if it was empty, believes that his citizens feel this too. “The experience since 2011 has been negative” “Instead of seeing improvements, things got worse” and “everything happened in the name of democracy,” he told EFE.
Participation 2022 constitutional referendum (30%) and the parliamentary elections a year ago (11%) are the lowest ever recorded, indicating a continued loss of confidence in electoral processes in the country from now until final accession.
Participation in the polls visited by EFE varied between districts; From the early morning queues in the Antit district around the capital to the empty classrooms in education centres. to MarsA wealthy seaside town close to the capital.
Single-member candidates who do not belong to political parties (only 13.4% are women) are mobilizing in some constituencies. Tunisians like Fadhila did not vote in parliamentary elections a year ago but were encouraged to participate because candidates did not vote today. “Someone from here in the neighborhood is a lawyer.”
More than nine million Tunisians have been called to the polls to choose from 6,177 candidates by 17:00 GMT. 279 newly created local councilsThe first phase of the final constitution of the National Council of Regions and Districts (CNRD), the second house of Parliament, which Said introduced in the new 2022 Constitution.
The Tunisian president argued this Sunday: “These local councils will be closer to the citizens” and will help convey Tunisians’ “wants and demands” to the CNRD.
Said, who was democratically elected in 2019, assumed full powers in July 2021. “Straighten the course of the democratic transition” and with these elections, the “New Republic” project, built “from the ground up”, reaches its peak.
It does this with a new “ultra-presidential” constitutional framework in which Parliament loses its privileges, and with political parties outside the Tunisian scene, especially since the arrest of opposition figures who have been detained for security reasons, among other charges. “Conspiracy against the state.”
However, the first concern of Tunisians is the economic crisis, high inflation and food shortage Analysts and candidates agree on changing the country’s management structure rather than the president’s project (bread, tea, coffee, flour, sugar).
During this election event, a parallel process will also be held to choose among them by lottery. 1,028 applications A mandatory fee in every local municipality for a disabled person.
Preliminary results of this first round will be announced no later than: 27 December If the winner does not get a majority, it will go to a second round in January.