With 8.8% voter turnout, Tunisian opposition call on Saied to resign

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
18 Dec 2022 12:18
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The Tunisian coalition says it now considers Kais Saied an illegitimate president and demands his resignation.

This is the lowest participation in any poll since the uprising that Tunisia witnessed in 2011 (AFP)

The head of the Independent Supreme Elections Commission in Tunisia, 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.

That would be the lowest participation in any poll since the uprising that the country witnessed in 2011.

Opposition groups boycotted the election, saying it was part of a "coup".

Bouasker acknowledged 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 added.

Tunisia's main opposition coalition considered that Saied must resign after the low turnout in parliamentary elections. Preliminary results are expected Monday.

Nejib Chebbi, the head of the National Salvation Front, described the elections as a "fiasco", calling for mass protests to demand snap presidential elections.

"What happened today is an earthquake, From this moment, we consider Saied an illegitimate president and demand he resign after this fiasco," Chebbi underlined on Saturday.

The National Salvation Front also called for "massive protests and sit-ins" to demand new presidential elections.

Tunisian President Kais Saeid claimed on Saturday that the elections are part of a road map to end the chaos and corruption that plagued Tunisia under the previous regime.

In these elections, 1058 candidates competed for 161 seats. Tunisians voted for candidates individually instead of lists prepared by parties, and the principle of gender parity, which was approved in 2016 as one of the main demands in 2011, has been abolished.

These are the first elections after Saied's exceptional measures, which included dissolving the parliament and the Judicial Council, issuing legislation by presidential decrees, and approving a new constitution for the country through a referendum held on July 25, 2022.

Saied argues that these measures were necessary to save Tunisia from collapse, while his opponents consider it a coup against the 2014 constitution.