Tunisia election updates: Polls close after low turnout
All the updates from December 17 as they happened.
This blog is now closed, thanks for joining us. These were the updates on Tunisia’s parliamentary elections on Saturday, December 17.
This blog is now closed, thanks for joining us. These were the updates on Tunisia’s parliamentary elections on Saturday, December 17.
- Polls closed at 6pm (17:00 GMT) after controversial parliamentary elections in Tunisia, the first vote since the opposition-controlled chamber was suspended by President Kais Saied in July 2021 and later dissolved.
- The elections were marked by low voter turnout, with 8.8 percent according to the electoral commission.
- The opposition has boycotted Saturday’s election, calling the vote the latest step in Saied’s consolidation of power, which included the passage of a new constitution in August that did away with the country’s hybrid parliamentary democracy.
- The vote is the latest turn in Tunisia’s thorny political saga, with the country initially hailed as a rare Arab Spring success story after the introduction of free and fair elections following the removal of longtime leader President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.
- Tunisia has since faced crises in security, politics and economy, with Saturday’s vote coming amid protests and months of food shortages that have highlighted gaping inequalities among the population of nearly 12 million.
ISIE will announce results on Sunday
On Sunday, the Tunisian Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE) will announce the results, but statistics show that the majority of voters were male (68 percent). Youth mostly stayed away from the polls, as 70 percent of voters were older than 45.
Observers from various organisations commented that they had not seen voter levels per centre rise above double figures at any given moment.
Polling centres had more members of the media, poll workers and security officers than voters.
Zyna Mejri of fact-checking service Falso said that despite the electoral silence, candidates continue to campaign online, mostly on Facebook.
“We tend to rely on nongovernment organisations, such as election observers, Mourakiboun, as they are trusted with their honesty and competence,” Mejri said.
President’s political changes ‘doomed to fail’ says analyst
Amine Snoussi, a political analyst in Tunis, said the low turnout shows that President Saied’s political project is “doomed to fail” since – contrary to what he thought would happen – the majority of people have not consolidated their political beliefs in political institutions.
“The legitimacy he built on all the actions he did since two years ago was that he wanted to build back political belief in the system, in the presidency, in parliament,” Snoussi told Al Jazeera.
“One of his main arguments was that people did not want the previous parliament. And now what we are seeing is that people do not want Kais Saied’s project of a parliamentary system that is not really effective.”
Unprecedented low voter turnout as polls close
Polls have closed at 6pm local time (17:00 GMT) amid an unprecedented low voter turnout at about seven percent.
“The story tonight is not about who is going to be in parliament, because it no longer has a bigger say than the president who has consolidated powers over the past few months, but about the voter turnout which is going to give us an indication about the general sentiment among Tunisians who are pretty much concerned about the future of their country,” Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra said.
“The opposition has boycotted the election. The biggest and most powerful trade union, UGTT, decided it won’t take part in this political process and has been very critical of President Saied.
“The economy has been in tatters over the last two years, inflation is at its highest at 10 percent, [and] food prices have been skyrocketing. And this explains why people over the last few weeks lost hope in the political process and why voter turnout still stands at seven percent, an unprecedented low turnout in Tunisia,” Ahelbarra said.
Saied faces challenges in the upcoming months
Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra said the dismal reaction of the majority of Tunisians towards the elections is an indication of what will happen to the country’s future.
“We’re going to see a parliament where political parties won’t have any say,” he said, speaking from Tunis. “We’re going to see a government that does not really have a bigger say, and the president consolidating powers.”
The low turnout is a message to President Saied that people are not excited about what is happening in the country and are concerned about the political changes he made over the last year.
“The months ahead will be challenging for Saied who still insists what he did was for the sake of preventing the country from descending into civil war because he said the consensus politics was not producing any progress for his country,” Ahelbarra said.
Turnout off by more than half from 2019 legislative election
Electoral board president Farouk Bouasker announced that at 4pm (15:00 GMT), 656,915 voters had cast their ballots. That’s just a little more than seven percent of eligible voters.
Tunisian data science company Insights TN said the figure represents less than half of the number of votes cast at the same point in the 2019 legislative elections, which was 1.5 million.
Insights TN said it is unlikely that turnout will reach one million of Tunisia’s nine million registered voters by the time polls close at 6pm (17:00 GMT).
Former MP: Low turnout reflects Tunisians’ disinterest in Saied’s plan
Saida Ounissi, a former Tunisian legislator for the Ennahdha party, told Al Jazeera that the low turnout for the parliamentary elections is a “major confirmation” of the disinterest of the majority of Tunisians towards the political roadmap launched by Saied.
“The numbers cannot lie and today was one of the biggest trials to see whether the population endorses the whole process after the coup staged in 2021,” Ounissi said, speaking from the capital Tunis.
The disconnection between the concerns of the president of the republic and the expectations of the majority of the population is not surprising, she continued.
“People are concerned about economic issues and social reforms,” she said. “The issue is not a problem of institutions or a problem of politics, it is about making economic choices and this is the conversation we need to be having in Tunisia and we are not having.
“It’s impossible to have in an authoritarian context because most of the people when it comes to giving their opinions today are quite afraid because freedom of expression – there’s a range of regulations that actively keep people silent. “
Election observers at the Mourakiboun network have reported cases of vote buying at voting centres in the central provincial capital of Gafsa, Sbeitla in the west and in the city of Nabeul on the coast of the Cape Bon peninsula.
Observers in Sbeitla reported a heated verbal exchange between supporters of different candidates that came to blows.
They said Saturday morning’s turnout was just 2 percent of voters.
Saied says vote ‘historic opportunity’ as he casts ballot
Tunisia’s president has hailed the parliamentary vote as a historic opportunity for Tunisia, amid calls by opposition parties to boycott the election.
“I address all Tunisians and voters to say that on the revolution anniversary, this is your historic chance,” Saied said in a televised address outside a polling station. “So do not lose this chance and listen to your conscience in order to regain your legitimate rights.”
Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Tunis, said 270,000 Tunisians had so far cast their ballot, a “really low” turnout compared with past elections.
“This, perhaps, explains why [Saied] made these comments,” Ahelbarra said.
Turnout likely to be ‘minuscule’, analyst says
Turnout is expected to be “minuscule,” much lower than in previous elections, Monica Marks, a professor of Middle East politics at New York University, Abu Dhabi, told Al Jazeera from Tunis.
Tunisians feel the election is “a sham and that they’ve lost control of the process, but they are so focused on basic necessities that they don’t have the energy to go out and make another revolution,” Marks said.
“They are so proud of their revolution in 2011 but they are concerned about whether going out to the streets again will actually improve their situation,” she added. Many instead are opting to wait and see what Saied will do to alleviate their problems.
Opposition leaders still hopeful for Tunisia’s democracy
Opposition leaders in Tunisia – who have largely boycotted Saturday’s polls – say they hope to be able to take the general disenchantment felt by the public and channel it into a return to democracy, as they would see it.
“People are very depressed right now, they’ve suffered a lot,” National Salvation Front leader, 78-year-old Najib Chebbi, told Al Jazeera.
Chebbi said he remains optimistic about Tunisia’s democratic future.
“It’s quite normal for a country in a democratic transition to go through these periods of reversal,” Chebbi said. “It’s very difficult to kill the spirit of democracy. Tunisia is a pluralistic society with diverse opinions and media.”
Read more: Opposition hopes democratic ideals can return in Tunisia
Disappointment as Tunisia marks 12th anniversary of revolution
In Sidi Bouzid, where the Tunisian revolution began in 2010, there is a sense of dissatisfaction with the progress made since.
Many Tunisians are far more focused on a growing economic crisis and threats to public finances that have caused salary delays and the risk of shortages of key subsidised goods.
Al Jazeera’s Assed Baig reports from the city.
Will Tunisia’s political crisis ever end?
The Essential Middle East podcast dissects Tunisia’s parliamentary elections and why they created uncertainty among citizens.
Tunisia’s parliamentary elections are to take place on Saturday as the country is in the middle of its worst economic crisis.
🎧 On #EssentialMiddlEast, we sat down with @EliziaVolkmann to discuss where Tunisia is headed now: https://t.co/SxGoO8Ef9K pic.twitter.com/utuX17TTqF
— Al Jazeera English Podcasts (@AJEPodcasts) December 16, 2022
Why are Tunisia’s parliamentary elections so controversial?
Saturday’s vote is the first parliamentary vote since 2019, and the first since President Kais Saied dissolved parliament last year.
The Tunisian opposition has decried Saied’s moves as a “coup”, but he says they were necessary to fight back against what he describes as a “corrupt” political elite.
Many Tunisians fear the country is sliding back towards authoritarianism 10 years on from the 2011 revolution that overthrew longtime leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and ushered in a period of democracy.
Election chief hails ‘positive’ turnout
Farouk Bouasker, the president of the higher electoral authority (ISIE), has hailed what he called the “positive and respectable” number of voters who turned out in the first two hours of voting on Saturday.
The statement stood in contrast to the small trickle of voters seen at polling stations across the country.
Bouasker said that in the first two hours of voting, 270,032 voters were counted out of 9.3 million registered voters. He added that voters were registered automatically as was the case for the July 25 referendum.
The election chief looked visibly flustered when challenged about the reduced numbers of election observers from previous polls, saying “there’s not much difference in the number of observers than previous elections”.
This conflicts with the fact that the EU did not send a delegation of observers, as it had in previous elections. Even local observer Mourakiboun has said the network is running a smaller observation programme this year.
‘Comatose sarcasm’: Analyst says voters unaware or disillusioned
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Monica Marks, a professor of Middle East politics at New York University, Abu Dhabi, said there is a “mood of exhaustion” in Tunisia amid its unprecedented economic crisis.
“I would describe the mood on the street here almost as comatose sarcasm,” she said. “Everyone says ‘what election?’ when you ask them what they’re planning to do here on election day, either because they simply don’t know that there’s an election … or because they know perfectly well that there’s an election, but they view it as a masquerade and are coping through sarcasm.”
That exhaustion extends to any possible efforts to again rise up for change, she added.
“A lot of Tunisians are jaded about the fruits from the revolutionary tree that most of them were able to eat over the past decade,” she said. “They say they’re so proud of their revolution in 2011, but they’re concerned about going out on the streets again, is that going to actually improve their situation?”
I would describe the mood in #Tunisia 🇹🇳 today–as it holds election 🗳 for 1/2 a parliament where parties are prohibited, whose role is still almost entirely undefined, & which won't have power to check or balance President Saied–as comatose sarcasm.
Here's why: https://t.co/AbFlklj6Zp
— Monica Marks (@MonicaLMarks) December 17, 2022
‘I’m the only one in my friend group voting today’
Shortly after 10am (09:00 GMT), only one voter was present at a polling site the working class district of El Aouina.
“I’m the only one in my friend group voting today, I feel it is my duty as a Tunisian to vote,” said 24-year-old Mohammed Ali, an olive farmer who works in the Cap Bon region but lives in Al Aouina. He said as a farmer he is deeply concerned about the rapidly rising prices of agricultural products for his work “every thing is very expensive now” he said.
However he was suprised that there was only one choice of candidate “there used to be a lot of different candidates to choose from before.”
According to election rules, single candidates will be declared the winner of their seat, regardless of the number of votes cast.
About 20 minutes later, another seven, mostly older people showed up to vote.
More than 1,000 candidates running
More than 1,000 candidates are running in this year’s parliamentary elections compared with 15,500 in 2019.
Under the new rules, political parties can no longer run campaigns or fund candidates. Instead, all candidates must run as individuals and fund campaigns themselves.
Previously, Tunisia’s parliamentary elections were based on a proportional representation list system, and the state provided funds to give a broader scope of candidates a chance to run for office.
Twelve political parties, including the Muslim democratic Ennahdha and the centrist Qalb Tounes, which together held the largest bloc in the old parliament, have boycotted the election. The powerful labour union UGTT also said it rejected the election process entirely.
Read more: Tunisians trickle in to vote in elections as opposition boycotts
Low turnout continues in Tunis
Reporting from Tunis, Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra says only about 25 to 30 people have voted at the polling site where he has been stationed for two hours since polls opened at 8am (07:00 GMT).
“We are definitely moving towards the lowest voter turnout in Tunisia since 12 years ago, when the country inspired the Arab Spring and moved towards one of the most vibrant, active political systems in its modern time,” Ahelbarra said.
“People are not excited for the simple reason that this is the first time in 12 years that Tunisia would have a parliament that does not really have a bigger say, all the authorities and power have been consolidated under the authority of President Kais Saied,” he said.
Al Jazeera’s Elizia Volkmann, meanwhile, reported from Tunis that tensions are rising among organisers as they fear embarrassment over the exceptionally low turnout.
Former Tunisian president says Saied part of ‘counter-revolution’
In an interview with Al Jazeera ahead of Tunisia’s parliamentary elections, Moncef Marzouki, Tunisia’s first president after the 2011 revolution, said the country’s current leader was part of a “counter-revolution” and was attempting to return to the pre-revolution political system.
“Once again, [it is] the rule of one man, all the power gathered by one man,” Marzouki said. “And this is exactly what we didn’t want after the revolution … The will of one man has destroyed Iraq, has destroyed Syria, has destroyed Libya.”
Marzouki said he believes that change is inevitable, because of what he argues is the inability of Saied to deliver. But he worries about future protest movements.
“Talking about an Arab Spring is not the most accurate image, [the most accurate image would be] an Arab volcano,” Marzouki added.
Read more: Ex-Tunisian president warns of ‘Arab volcano’ ahead of elections
Food shortages underscore economic crisis
Food, medicine and fuel shortages have been a recurring theme of Tunisian life throughout 2022.
Many people are angry that after promising so much, President Saied has concentrated on political changes – such as bringing in a new constitution – rather than finding economic solutions to their most pressing needs.
For his part, Saied has previously blamed speculators for the food shortages, but his opponents say he is to blame for failing to revive the country’s economy.
“I’m not sure why there’s no soda pop … lots of products missing, like rice and tea and coffee,” Mohammed, a shelf-stacker at a supermarket in Tunis, told Al Jazeera. “But it’s not just missing products, it’s the prices, look at that bottle of oil, 1.8 litres it’s 18 dinars [$15.7[ now, it was seven or eight dinars [$2.2-$2.5] before, it’s more than doubled.”
Read more: Amid election, Tunisian market shelves are still bare
Heavy security on anniversary of uprising
Metal barriers and police checkpoints bristling with officers pacing and cradling their rifles marked the roads to the city centre in Tunis.
“They used to do this under Ben Ali to make us afraid,” said Aymen, a taxi driver, referring to the former leader overthrown in 2011, with a laugh.
At 8:05am (07:05 GMT), journalists crowded around the Rue de Marseille voting station, where only one person had voted.
“I want to support my country and to support my president. I want the country to go forward and get better and that’s why I voted today,” said local businesswoman Manoubia Shagawi.
It was a far different sentiment among young people gathered at a nearby cafe. When asked if they planned to vote, their answer was a definite “no”.
Low traffic as polling stations open in Tunis
Reporting from the capital and largest city, Tunis, Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra said few people were waiting to vote when polls opened at 8am (07:00 GMT).
“Very few people have so far turned out at the polling station that you can see right behind me,” he said.
“Now this was packed with people about three years ago when I was here, covering the presidential election,” he said, referring to the 2019 run-off between President Saied and opponent Nabil Karoui.
“The opposition has been saying that this is going to be a very low voter turnout,” he said. “They say this is something that goes against the very spirit of the 2011 uprising in Tunisia that ushered in unprecedented democratic gains in the country and gave huge voice to the parliament, the judiciary system and to other institutions.”
Lacklustre election day expected
Saturday’s vote appears to inspire little enthusiasm across Tunisia amid widespread disillusionment over political dysfunction and an ongoing economic crisis.
It comes 12 years after Tunisian vegetable seller Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in an act of protest that sparked the Arab Spring – a series of popular uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa.
Only about a quarter of registered voters turned out to vote “yes” in July in a referendum on a new constitution, which gave the president the ultimate authority over the government and judiciary.
Read more: Timeline of key political events in Tunisia since the Arab Spring
Why is Tunisia’s constitution so controversial?
Tunisians voted to adopt a new constitution in July, which changed the country from a hybrid parliamentary democracy to one where the president has sweeping powers.
Opposition parties – the vast majority of which are boycotting the parliamentary vote – have said the passage of the constitution was a big step in Tunisia’s march towards one-man rule.
Read more: Why is Tunisia’s new constitution so controversial?
Polls set to open in parliamentary vote
Polls set to open at 8am (07:00 GMT) in polls that will determine the makeup of Tunisia’s parliament.
The vote is the first of its kind since President Saied suspended the opposition-controlled chamber in July 2021 and dissolved the 217-seat body months later.
The opposition has boycotted the election in the wake of the passage of a new constitution that weakened parliament while giving the president sweeping powers.