Voter turnout in Tunisia's legislative election stood at 11.22%
The main opposition coalition, which had called for a boycott of the elections, believes that the low turnout should be a cue for Saied to step down.
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Voter turnout in Tunisia's legislative election stood at 11.22%
Tunisia's electoral board, the ISIETN, updated on Monday the turnout of the December 17 legislative elections at 11.22%, which amounts to exactly 1,025,418 voters - a meager increase in comparison to yesterday's turnout of 8.8%.
Yesterday, the head of the ISIETN, Farouk Bouasker, said that by the close of polls, just 8.8% of the nine-million-strong electorate had cast votes in the parliamentary elections - the lowest participation in any poll since the uprising that the country witnessed in 2011.
The main opposition coalition, which had called for a boycott of the elections, said Sunday the low turnout should be a cue for Saied to step down.
But Bouasker said that the turnout was "modest", claiming that it could be explained by "the absence of foreign financing, in contrast to previous elections."
"This was the cleanest election, with no vote-buying," he said.
#Tunisia: voter turnout in the December 17 legislative election stood at 11.22 percent, as 1,025,418 voters cast their ballots, @ISIETN president Farouk Bouasker said at press conference Monday evening. #TAP_En pic.twitter.com/P3Z6z8vvmZ
— TAP news agency (@TapNewsAgency) December 19, 2022
Since July of last year, Saied has taken a number of "exceptional measures", including dismissing the government, dissolving the Judicial Council, freezing the work of parliament, issuing legislations by presidential decrees, adopting a new constitution through a referendum on July 25, and bringing forward the date of the parliamentary elections to December 17.
Saied has pushed through a new constitution giving the presidency almost unrestrained powers and laying the ground for a 161-seat legislature.
In Tunisia's former constitution, the previous legislature had broad powers under the mixed presidential-parliamentary system. Candidates in this election, however, are running as individuals under a system that delegitimizes political parties, including the opposition.
Les chiffres communiqués par @ISIETN sont loin de la réalité !
— oussama khlifi (@oussamakhlifi11) December 17, 2022
Les bureaux de votes sont totalement vides, c’est un véritable scandale #tunisie #elections
Read more: Tunisian Elections Commission: No scenes of political funding
