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Rabat – The Tunisian parliamentary elections held on Sunday are expected to draw a low turnout as economic woes and political tensions continue to loom over the country.
Voters are expected to choose between 262 candidates to fill the remaining 131 seats in parliament, with another round of elections scheduled for March for seven constituencies that have no candidate.
President Kais Saied dissolved the parliament in 2021 before changing the constitution to abolish the hybrid parliamentary system and give himself more authority, drawing the ire of opposition groups.
The first round of the elections in December saw a measly 11% turnout, with 10 candidates running unopposed.
Although the second round on Sunday is seen as the final step in Saied’s political transformation of the country, the gutting of the Parliament’s power means they will have almost no authority over the president.
Major opposition parties are holding a boycott of the election, including Saied’s biggest rivals, Ennahda. The boycotting parties have said they fear that authorities will inflate the election’s turnout figures for Sunday.
The parliament’s lack of power has seemingly demotivated Tunisians not only from voting, but also from running for office.
Saied’s modifications to the power structure have caused warnings of democratic backsliding, after many saw the North African country as the Arab Spring’s only success story.
The political tensions have only been made worse by the country’s economic woes, with inflation and shortages causing the price of essential food items and fuel to skyrocket.
Tunisia’s Minister of Social Affairs Malek Ezzahi, told Nessma TV in 2022 that close to a million Tunisian families live below the poverty line, compared to 300,000 families in 2010.
These difficulties mean that Tunisians have been more preoccupied with making ends meet than voting in the elections.
