Tunisia (EFE).- Tunisia opened the polls again today at 7.00 GMT for a second round of the legislative elections, boycotted by the political parties and after a first vote that registered almost 90% abstention.
The votes are held only in 131 electoral districts (out of 161, one for each seat) that did not obtain a majority winner in December, to form the new chamber dissolved by the Tunisian president, Kais Said, who has governed by decree since July 25 of 2021.
Some eight million Tunisians are called to vote until 5:00 p.m. GMT to choose in their constituencies between the two candidates with the most votes in the first round on December 17. In total there are 262 applicants, of which only 34 are women.
The president of the Independent Superior Instance for Elections (ISIE), Farouk Bouaskar, announced this Saturday that the preliminary results will be announced “no later than” on February 1, and the final ones on March 4.
On this occasion, the ISIE manages two electoral censuses: the voluntary prior registration (used in Tunisia until the constitutional referendum on July 25) and the automatic, in which all citizens with the right to vote, employed in the elections of the first round of December.
The participation of last December 17 with the automatic registration census was 11.22%.
Said suspended Parliament on July 25, 2021, which he later dissolved, and since then he has governed with full powers and has imposed a roadmap that includes a new Constitution approved last year in a referendum, also with almost 70% abstention.
The new text introduces an ultra-presidential system and limits the functions of the Assembly of People’s Representatives, which will no longer be able to name the Executive or hold the head of state accountable.
The president also decreed a new electoral law that replaces party lists with single-member candidates, considering that the formations are “obsolete” and holding them responsible for the deterioration of the democratic transition that Tunisia began in 2011.
The main opposition political parties maintain the electoral boycott while civil society progressively disassociates itself from Said’s “unilateral” project with which it intends to “save” the nation and “rectify the revolutionary course.”
For its part, the population shows more concern about the loss of purchasing power, inflation that exceeds 10% and a long and deep economic crisis, which has led the Government to request a new loan of 1,900 million dollars from the International Monetary Fund. (IMF), pending final approval.
