Why are Tunisians abstaining from voting?

Khamis Ben Brik-Tunisia

The morning turnout in the Tunisian presidential elections today registered a low turnout of only 17%, at a time when the electoral commission hopes that the rate will increase during the evening.

As of 1:00 pm local time (midday GMT), the turnout was 16.3% in 27 electoral districts, and in more than 4,000 polling stations across the country, while the percentage of Tunisians living abroad did not exceed 12%, according to independent commission figures. For elections.

The lowest turnout was recorded in the governorates of Kairouan, Zaghouan (center), Monastir (east) and Beja (northwest), as well as Tunis and Sfax (south), although they have the highest electoral reservoir.

The correspondent of Al Jazeera Net noted in some polling stations in the capital Tunis very low turnout at the ballot boxes, especially young people.

Polling stations continue to receive voters to cast their ballots until 6 pm (5 pm GMT) today in the second presidential election after the revolution in which 26 candidates contest.

It is expected that the preliminary results will be published this evening, with the election commission to issue preliminary results officially on Tuesday.

He predicted the election commissioner Nabil Azizi that the number of voters will rise in the last hours before the closure of polling stations, noting that it is customary that the turnout during the morning period is weak, and then take an upward form during the evening.

But he told Al Jazeera Net that compared to the first round of the 2014 elections recorded the current lowest participation rate during the morning. Turnout in 2014 was low to 11 am, but gradually rose to about 63% when polling stations were closed, Azizi said.

Extraordinary elections
The abstention rate in the first round of the 2014 presidencies reached about 37% of the total of 5,708,000 registered voters in the voter register, while the current elections have registered more than seven million and 74 thousand voters, including 386 thousand voters registered outside the country.

Nabil Azizi attributed the high rate of voter turnout to the high number of candidates for the presidential elections, the 26 candidates, and the lack of clarity among voters due to the dispersion of voters and the large number of programs, in addition to the organization of elections in an exceptional situation early after the death of Tunisian President Beji Kaid Essebsi.

Azizi said that the advance of the presidential elections, which were scheduled in November, after the legislative elections scheduled for October 6, did not leave the electoral body much time to conduct propaganda campaigns inside the cities to educate voters and invite them to go heavily To the ballot box.

He added that the presence of one of the presidential candidates in the prison - the owner of Nessma TV and businessman Nabil Karoui on charges of tax evasion and money laundering - and the presence of another candidate outside the country and also prosecutions in cases of financial corruption, made voters feel that there is a "black point" in the elections.

trustless
For his part, predicted the economic and social expert Reza Shikandali to the island Net recorded a large reluctance to participate in the current presidential elections, because of the crisis of voter distrust in the political class that ruled the country after the revolution, due to the deterioration of their living conditions as a result of high prices and deterioration of services and the deterioration of infrastructure.

He considered that the low turnout despite the campaign witnessed a heated war between some candidates through the media and social networking pages and during the television debates; evidence of a state of anger among voters because of the deterioration of their living situation.

In the event that no candidate has obtained an absolute majority of votes (50 + 1) is resorted to the second round between the first and second place with the highest votes.