Tunisians head to the polls again, Saied plays down crisis
An electoral campaign for a second shot at parliamentary election in Tunisia has already got under way, with a final date when Tunisians go to the polls again set for January 29th, according to Anadoula Agency.
The President of the Independent High Authority for the Elections in Tunisia (ISIE), Farouk Bou Asker, confirmed on January 15th that the second round of the early legislative elections will take place on January 29.
“The electoral campaign will start Monday (16th January), until Friday January 27, knowing that Saturday January 28 will be the day of electoral silence (the day before the poll),” Bou Asker told a press conference held in Tunis. .
And to add: “The announcement of the preliminary results will be made on Wednesday February 1, and that of the final results of the second round will be made after the end of the appeals, within a period not exceeding Saturday March 4.”
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Bou Askar recalled that 23 candidates, including 3 women, were elected in the first round out of the 154 seats in the Assembly of People’s Representatives (ANP – Parliament).
“7,853,445 voters are invited to go to the polls in the second round (in 131 constituencies) out of 9,136,502 voters”, he continued, explaining that “the 23 constituencies in which the elections were decided in the first round will not be affected.”
The first round of voting was held on December 17 and saw a low turnout of 11.22% of voters, which political parties saw as a failure of the emergency measures introduced by the country’s president, Kaïs Saïed, and called for early presidential elections.
For his part, Saïed downplayed the importance of the low turnout, saying that this rate is “better than the 99% turnout in the rigged elections that took place before”.
The parties opposed to the emergency measures will not be represented in the next parliament, insofar as they have decided to boycott these early elections.
