Sky News Arabia monitors several distinct features of the electoral scene this time. The elections are held according to the new law that was approved on September 15th.
- Or not: Elections are being held for the first time in Tunisia with a system of individual seats instead of party lists, and 1,055 candidates, including 122 women, are competing for 151 constituencies.
- secondly: The winners of these elections will not enjoy immunity, like their predecessors, because the new law abolished legal immunity, and granted the citizen the right to withdraw confidence from the candidate in the event of his failure to perform his duties.
- Third: Funding for electoral campaigns depends entirely on self-financing; The law prohibits parties from conducting propaganda during the election campaign period, and electoral campaigns are governed by the principles of impartiality of administration, places of worship, transparency, and equal opportunities for candidates.
- Fourthly: These are the first elections in which the Ennahda Brotherhood movement has not participated since 2011, and which announced its boycott of the elections, amid expectations of specialists in terrorism affairs that this matter marks the end of its political career.
- Fifth: Voting will take place in the elections on December 17, while the polling will take place abroad over a period of 3 days as follows: December 15, 16 and 17, and the preliminary results will be announced between December 18 and 20. As for the final results, they will be issued on January 19, after deciding on the appeals.
Election turnout
Tunisian political analyst, Bassam Hamdi, tells Sky News Arabia that the legislative elections in Tunisia “carry many indications and characteristics,” most notably:
- “It is the last stop to complete the political project established by President Kais Saied, based on the July 25 corrective measures.”
- “The Ennahda movement is the most affected by this political project, as it no longer has any representation in Parliament, and it may resort to secretly nominating candidates, or approaching the winners, or buying off the debts of some as an attempt to gain access to Parliament and ensure political representation for it.”
- “The extent of Tunisians’ turnout for the elections will reflect their compatibility with this political project and their agreement on rejecting the return of some forces to the scene again.”
Roadmap
According to the “road map” announced by the Tunisian president, the elections will take place after a new election law is drawn up, preceded by stages related to the dissolution of Parliament, which was controlled by the Ennahda movement, the reconfiguration of the government, the drafting of a new constitution, in addition to judicial and economic reforms.
These measures, which were described as “corrective”, came after a series of popular protests against the Brotherhood’s Ennahda Movement’s rule of the country since 2011, accusing it of prioritizing the Brotherhood’s organization over Tunisia’s interest, and of political and financial corruption and spreading terrorism.
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