“The turnout in the second round of the legislative elections in Tunisia reached 11.3 percent, with 887,638 out of 7,853,447 registered voters casting their votes,” the head of the commission, Farouk Bouaskar, announced in a press conference on Sunday evening.
Tunisians went to the polls on Sunday, with a total of 4,222 polling stations and 10,012 polling stations open from 8 am to 6 pm.
According to the Independent High Authority for Elections, the total number of candidates for this round is 262, including 34 women.
The first round, which was held on December 17, 2022, witnessed a low turnout of 11.22 percent, during which 23 candidates won seats in the new parliament and no one ran for seven seats allocated to constituencies abroad.
It led to a second round of elections to determine 131 seats in the 161-member parliament.
According to a spokesman for the Independent High Authority for Elections, Mohamed Talili Mansouri, factors such as changing voting rules and the lack of party support for candidates may explain the low turnout.
On March 30 of last year, Tunisian President Kais Saied announced the dissolution of the Assembly of the Representatives of the People, or Parliament.
On April 5, 2022, Saeed revealed new voting rules for the legislative elections, according to which voting will be organized in two rounds, and people will vote for individuals, not lists, as in previous elections.
The vote took place at a time when Tunisia is facing difficult economic conditions.
According to the latest data from the International Monetary Fund, Tunisia’s current account deficit is 8 percent of GDP and its total debt is 89.2 percent of GDP, up from 82.8 percent in 2020 and 47 percent in 2011.
In December 2022, the annual inflation rate in Tunisia rose for the fifteenth consecutive month to 10.1 percent, the highest rate in 38 years.
Not giving an opinion: This story is automatically compiled by a computer program and was not created or edited by FreshersLIVE.publisher : IANS-Media
