Tunisians continue to vote in parliamentary elections

Some 7 million Tunisian voters continue to vote in the third legislative elections after the revolution. There are about 16 thousand candidates, divided on 1592 different lists between the party and coalition and independent. The Election Commission will announce the preliminary results by October 10.

The voting is scheduled to continue until 6 pm Tunis time (5 GMT) to elect 217 members of the parliament, which has wide powers. The Tunisians living abroad began voting on Friday, and their vote continues today.

Anis Jarboui, a member of the Independent High Electoral Commission, announced that the rate of voting in the legislative elections abroad reached 7% on Saturday.

Composition of the electorate
The head of the Supreme Electoral Commission in Tunisia, Nabil Buffon, told a press conference today that 49% of voters are women (3.4 million, of which 145 thousand outside the country), and 51% men (3.6 million, including 239 thousand abroad).

The number of electoral offices allocated to vote today is about 3446, of which 384 abroad, unlike the majority of polling stations delayed the opening of the doors of 348 offices by one hour for logistical considerations.These offices are located in the border areas with Libya and Algeria, and provide nearly 100,000 members of the security forces and the military electoral process.

Parliamentary elections are held between the two rounds of presidential elections, which did not witness a large turnout. The first round of voting resulted in only two new political figures competing in the second round at the expense of the candidates of the major parties. Voter turnout in the first round reached 49%.

It is unclear how the first round of the presidential election will affect Sunday's elections, in which Ennahda competes with many parties, including the heart of Tunisia, which belongs to media magnate Nabil Karoui, who competes in the second round of presidential elections on October 13. Retired Constitutional Law Qais Saeed.

Said interrupted
Among the competing lists are 695 party lists, 190 coalition lists and 707 independent lists.The number of independent lists inside Tunisia increased in 2019, reaching 643 lists compared to 414 in the 2014 elections.

The head of the Independent High Electoral Commission in previous statements that only ten parties out of 221 parties competing in all districts, Buffon added that 175 parties submitted one list each, while 11 parties did not submit any lists.

Formation of government
Al-Jazeera correspondent in Tunis, Seif Eddine Boualak, said the party, which will lead the polls, is not expected to win an absolute majority to form a government alone, which will open the door for alliances to form a majority coalition government in the legislative institution, which has broad powers under the Constitution in A parliamentary political system has prevailed in Tunisia since the adoption of the new constitution in 2014.

Under the constitution, the prime minister from the largest party in parliament dominates most domestic politics, while the president bears direct responsibility for foreign affairs and defense.

If the largest party fails to win a large number of seats, with many independents, it may find it difficult to form a coalition of up to 109 deputies needed to secure majority support for a new government.

He has two months from the date of the election, either to succeed or the President to appoint another person to form a government. If it fails, the elections will be held again.