Saied attributes Tunisians’ reluctance to vote to a lack of confidence in the parliament
Tunisian President Kais Saied said that the 90% of voters’ failure to participate in the recent legislative elections “is because the parliament no longer means anything to them”, in an open criticism of the former regime, which is accused of humiliating the parliament. A number of its former deputies were accused of charges related to either corruption or breaking the law.
On Monday evening, the Independent High Electoral Commission announced that the turnout in the second round of early legislative elections was 11.4 %, a low turnout that revealed an unprecedented reluctance by Tunisians to participate in the electoral process.
“We are reading the numbers in the percentage of abstention and not in the percentage of voter turnout, because Tunisians have come to see the parliament in the past years as an institution that tampered with the state, not an institution inside the state,” Saied said in a video posted on his Facebook page after he met Monday evening with Prime Minister Najla Bouden at the Kasbah Palace in the capital.
He added that “90% of Tunisians did not participate in the legislative elections because the parliament no longer means anything to them,” clarifying that “the reluctance to vote in the first and second sessions of the early legislative elections is a reaction, in addition to the fact that these elections do not have corrupt political money, and the numbers must be read differently.”
“We have to read these conditions (of popular abstention), show our commitment to our state and its institutions, which must be supported, and we will not pay attention to the comments,” he said.
Tunisia’s new constitution, approved by an overwhelming majority of Tunisians in a referendum, grants the country less power to the parliament as it shifts the country from a system that divides powers among three heads sharing power among them to a presidential system in which the president has wide powers.
Conflict, violence and accusations of corruption by former MPs were one reason for President Saied’s extraordinary measures on 25 July 2021.
The Tunisian president attacked the opposition saying that he still enjoys popular support, contrary to what some suspicious parties are broadcasting, pointing out that Tunisians do not listen to the speech of some foreign-backed forces.
Voter turnout in the first round of the legislative elections was 11.22%, and political parties led by Ennahdha deemed it a “failure,” and called for early presidential elections while supporters of the president said there would be no going back on the current track.
The Tunisian president also stressed that “those who fall into the embrace of foreigners will be held accountable for their betrayal of the country (he did not mention specific names), and we will work to realize the people’s hopes for a dignified life.”
In the second round of early elections, 154 of the next parliament’s 161 seats were decided, while elections were not held in seven overseas voting districts where partial elections are expected to be held later to complete after the formation of the new parliament.
Preliminary results from the second round of legislative elections are expected to be announced by February 1st. Final results will be announced after appeals files close by March 4th.
These elections are the latest in a series of extraordinary measures imposed by Saied, including the dismissal of the government, the appointment of another, the dissolution of the Judiciary Council and the parliament, the passage of legislation by presidential decrees, and the adoption of a new constitution by referendum on July 25, 2022.
These actions are rejected by Tunisian forces led by Ennahdha, while others see them as “correcting the course of the 2011 revolution” that overthrew then president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali (1987-2011).
Saied, who began his five-year term in 2019, said his measures are “necessary and legal” to save the country from “total collapse”.
