Tunisians massively shunned the ballot box on Saturday when they were called upon to renew their Parliament, a ballot wanted by President Kais Saied to put an end to the process initiated by his July 2021 coup.
A new Assembly of 161 deputies, with very limited powers, must replace the one that Mr. Saied had frozen on July 25, 2021, arguing that the democratic institutions resulting from the first revolt of the Arab Spring, after the fall of dictator Ben Ali, were blocked. in 2011.
The president of the Isie electoral authority, Farouk Bouasker, announced a meager turnout, still provisional, of “8.8% at 6:00 p.m. [heure locale] » .
This is the lowest voter turnout since the 2011 Revolution after record highs (nearly 70% in the October 2014 legislative elections) and it is three times less than for the referendum on the Constitution last summer (30 .5%), already marked by strong abstention.
This new parliament “is supposed to be more democratic and representative than all previous parliaments in the country’s history,” quipped analyst Youssef Chérif on Twitter.
Mr. Bouasker recognized a “modest but not shameful rate”, believing that it was explained by “the total absence of vote buying […] with foreign funding,” unlike in the past, he said.
The National Salvation Front, a coalition of opponents dominated by the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party – the majority party in the outgoing parliament – called these results an “earthquake”, calling on the president to “bring together all political forces” to discuss it. .
Accusing for months Mr. Saied (elected at the end of 2019) of “dictatorial drift”, the opposition and most political parties boycotted the vote, to also denounce a change in electoral law, this time imposing candidacies without party affiliation .
Another factor that could explain the disaffection: the candidates (1055), half teachers or civil servants, were essentially unknown, with very few women (less than 12%) in a country committed to parity.
Before the vote, the powerful UGTT trade union center had deemed these legislative elections unnecessary.
For months, the economic crisis has been the major concern of the 12 million Tunisians, with inflation of nearly 10% and recurring shortages of milk, sugar or rice.
” No choice “
Salima Bahri, a 21-year-old student met by AFP in the suburbs of Tunis, did not vote, believing that “there is no choice to be made, in the absence of political parties”.
In the provinces, the atmosphere was just as gloomy.
In Kasserine (center), a deprived region near Sidi Bouzid where the 2011 Revolution broke out, Abed Jabbar Boudhiafi, 59, voted “out of electoral duty” in the hope of “political and economic” improvement.
Mohammed Jraidi, 40, shunned the ballot box: “I don’t trust the political class and things are going from bad to worse”.
Further south in Gafsa, Aicha Smari, 46, voted “driven by the anniversary date of December 17” 2010 when the young fruit and vegetable seller Mohamed Bouazizi committed suicide by self-immolation after police harassment, triggering the Revolution.
The Assembly of Deputies resulting from the ballot (after a second round by early March) will have very limited prerogatives under the new Constitution voted in July.
“Monopoly of Power”
Parliament will not be able to impeach the president and it will be almost impossible for it to censure the government. It will take ten deputies to propose a law and the president will have priority to pass his own.
“This vote is a formality to complete the system imposed by Kais Saied and concentrate power in his hands,” according to political scientist Hamza Meddeb.
The ballot is “a tool used by President Saied to confer legitimacy on his monopoly of power”, agrees analyst Hamish Kinnear, of the firm Verisk Maplecroft, believing however that the ballot will have the merit of facilitating the obtaining of the vote. assistance from foreign donors.
Tunisia, whose coffers are empty, has requested a new loan of two billion dollars from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which conditions other foreign aid.
But for Jawhar Ben Mbarek of the National Salvation Front, “the Tunisian people have sent a message to foreign forces – some of which supported Kais Saied’s coup – and to the IMF, that they do not recognize this government, therefore they have to revise their calculations”.