The election in Tunisia is seen as a sham by most of the country. With nothing done to defuse the tension, President Kais Saeid’s authoritarian regime is likely to fall.
An anti-terrorism judge in Tunisia has ordered the imprisonment of former Prime Minister Ali Larayedh, vice-president of the popular Islamist opposition party Ennahdha that accused authorities of trying to divert attention from calls for President Kais Saied to quit.
The investigation, which has also targeted Ennahdha’s veteran leader Rached Ghannouchi, was launched after the vehemently anti-Islamist president sacked the government and suspended parliament in July 2021.
There is no doubt that Larayedh’s arrest marked a desperate effort by the president Kais Saied to cover up the farce of the parliamentary election.
Saied hit back at his critics noting that some of them had criminal charges hanging over them, a veiled reference to investigations into Ennahdha officials. This will put him in a more volatile position, hitting up political tensions and risks of violent protests.
For a country of over 11 million people, Tunisia’s voter turnout saw 11.2% of the population participating in the parliamentary elections on December 17, 2022.
The elections held for the lower house of parliament are the latest step in a series of measures taken by Saied, who, in July 2021, ousted the government, dissolved parliament, and assumed executive authority.
Democracy in Tunisia faced multiple problems since the onset: absence of structured political parties, deteriorating economic situation, elite polarization. In a referendum in July this year, Tunisians approved a constitution that hands broad executive powers to the president. Saied led the project excluding all major political parties and civil society groups from the process.
Saied’s new system essentially does away with political parties and electoral lists, meaning candidates will be elected as individuals with no declared affiliation. Thus, the lack of political affiliations among the candidates will create more political infighting. So, there is no nationwide project that can unify the members of parliament.
The parliamentary elections took place amid the deepening economic crisis in Tunisia, which the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated. The cost of living in the country has spiked, hitting the poor and middle class alike amid shortages of basic goods and soaring unemployment. As a result, most Tunisians are more focused on their socioeconomic conditions than the direction the political system is taking in their country. So, the main takeaway from these elections is the disconnect between Tunisians and politics.
Under the new constitution, the president appoints the prime minister — a departure from the previous system which gave parliament a central role in picking the cabinet. Thus, Tunisia moved from a parliamentary system to a presidential one this summer, and the parliament lost many of its prerogatives.
In July 2021 President Saied suspended parliament and froze the legislature in a move described by the opposition as a coup, and a violation of the constitution.
As the electoral process continues into 2023, it is important to implement inclusive and transparent reforms, including empowering an elected legislature, establishing the Constitutional Court, and protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms for all Tunisians.
However, Saturday’s elections indicate that Tunisia’s young democracy is dead, with the official end of the Arab Spring that brought it about. The return of the police state is now possible.
The low voter turnout reinforces the need to further expand political participation over the coming months.
The final results are not expected before January. An additional round of legislative elections and another regional elections are expected this spring.
The new body is not expected to sit before March, after tied or close contests are rerun.
The Free Destourian Party (PDL) warned President of the Republic Kais Saied against the setting up of a parliament “rejected by the people.”
In an open letter to President Saied, the PDL underlined that it will not recognize the results announced by the election authority regarding the legislative elections.
The party considers that Saied has arrogated to himself all the powers since the publication in the JORT of the July 25, 2022 Constitution, adding that the head of the state will continue to violate international charters on human rights.
The PDL renewed its call for holding the presidential elections as soon as possible, suspending the legislative process and freezing the activities of the elections authority.
Almost all the country’s political parties, including Ennahdha, have said they will boycott the vote, labelling Saied’s moves a “coup.”
Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, president of Tunisia’s “Salvation Front” alliance, which boycotted the vote and has accused Saied of a coup against Tunisia’s democracy said the president had “lost all legal legitimacy”. He called on President Kais Saied to “leave immediately”.
An abstention rate of more than 91% “shows that very, very few Tunisians support Kais Saied’s approach”, Chebbi.
President of the Independent High Authority for Elections, Farouk Bouasker, described the voter turnout in the legislative elections as “modest”, saying the reasons for the low turnout were mainly “the changes to the voting system and the absence of political money in electoral campaigns.”
He claimed that candidates were able, through their individual efforts, to attract the 800,000 voters who cast their ballots. The turnout could have been much higher if the legal system for public and foreign funds and the use of associations and television channels was maintained, he indicated.
He also said that the Commission spared no effort in carrying out the necessary awareness campaign in the audio-visual media, in the street, and through text messages, to persuade voters to go to the polls.
