Tunisia -

Retired Mohamed Benzarti barely descends the stairs of the social security clinic in the Khadra neighborhood of the capital, Tunis.

Until he was about to sit down, panting from fatigue, while holding a lit cigarette in his hand to take a long breath from it, and staring from behind his glasses at the crossroads.

And "Crossroad" is an image that some see as embodying the Tunisian reality, which is experiencing an acute crisis due to the deterioration of living conditions, including high prices and scarcity of basic materials and medicines, while the country is preparing to hold legislative elections on December 17.

It was not easy to convince Benzarti to testify;

He is a man who is tired of life after his illness in a country that he says "does not preserve dignity." After nearly 3 decades he spent working as a driver roaming the roads, today he is sitting like a heavy burden, confused about the situation.

Mohamed Benzarti: The country is lost on the way (Al-Jazeera)

difficult situations

And this man is no longer concerned about the harms of smoking - as he says - despite his suffering from a stroke that almost ended his life forever. Smoking cigarettes is no less harmful than waiting for about half a day in a long line to see a doctor and then making another appointment after 3 months, according to him.

Muhammad Al-Banzarti suffers from heart disease, which worsened due to the stress of the narrow situation.

He receives a pension that only suffices for a few days, while inflation is making its way into the pockets of Tunisians amid a high cost crisis and an acute shortage of basic materials.

The condition of this sick retired man, whose efforts are fading away and his chest narrowed due to the excessive waiting in hospitals, the dilemma of the lack of medicines, the high cost, and the uncertainty of conditions, is daily bread for most Tunisians, to the point that there are people among Tunisians who do not know that the country is on the verge of legislative elections.

Al-Banzarti told Al-Jazeera Net, after delving into wandering thoughts, that the country was "lost on the way," and while he held the responsibility for the deterioration of conditions before the term of President Qais Saeed, it is unlikely that the latter would do anything to save "what was destroyed due to corruption."

After the revolution in 2011, Benzarti pinned hopes in his country that it would straighten out after the fall of tyranny, but the successive elections in which he participated "did not present anything but a political class that struggled over power, and the needs and dignity of the people were not within its thinking."

Frustration may have become entrenched in his view of reality, but he insists that the upcoming legislative elections will not change anything in the lives of Tunisians, considering that the election experience was repeated in many stations, but despite electoral promises and declarations of intentions, "the situation remained backwards."

Waiter Murad Al-Afifi: I will not participate in the legislative elections (Al-Jazeera)

Disappointment

Every morning, customers flock to the waiter, Murad Al-Afifi, who works in a popular cafe in the center of the capital. They have no daily talk other than complaining about the high prices of consumer goods and the loss of basic materials.

Especially milk, sugar and some medicines.

The man's life has changed upside down after he was forcibly deported from the Italian city of Milan after many years there, and after his return to Tunisia he married and had two daughters, and is trying hard to secure their lives with a monthly income that does not exceed 300 dollars without even social and health coverage.

He tells Al-Jazeera Net that he spends 30 dinars daily (about 10 dollars), but his refrigerator is "always empty", and what troubles his life most is the pain of his unemployed wife, who is unable to stand due to severe pain in her spine, without being able to find medicine to treat her.

Unlike the previous man, Murad Al-Afifi blames the deterioration of the situation on President Qais Said as a result of the difficult living conditions, which he says created a deep crisis of frustration that prompted a sector of young people to surf in search of an unknown fate in European countries.

And he assures Al-Jazeera Net that he will not participate in the upcoming legislative elections and that he does not pin hopes on changing the situation, expressing his dissatisfaction with what he considers a lack of human value in the eyes of the authority due to its indifference to health, education, transportation or employment, according to his opinion.

A divergence of views among Tunisians regarding the feasibility of the elections scheduled for December 17th (Al-Jazeera)

List hopes

Despite the state of drought afflicting Tunisia as a result of the lack of rain;

Hatem El-Baji, a specialist in renting and selling real estate, expects tourism to flourish thanks to the warm weather, and this weather "will contribute - if it continues - to the success of the upcoming elections and attracting voters."

Al-Baji told Al-Jazeera Net that the situation in Tunisia is not as bleak as some describe, acknowledging the existence of some high prices, but he insists on "president Qais Saeed's siding with the general public against the corrupt," whom he accuses of fabricating crises to tarnish the president's image.

For him, the upcoming legislative elections represent "the last nail in the coffin of the system that ruled after the 2011 revolution for an entire decade," considering that the candidates' turnout for the parliamentary elections - which will be held for the first time on the individual voting system - is "respectable."

This Tunisian citizen believes that President Kais Saied will open, through the upcoming legislative elections, a new page of constitutional legitimacy, which "will undoubtedly create in a later period stability in the country that will help reform economic and social conditions."

The legislative elections are taking place amid a broad boycott of the political forces in Tunisia (Reuters)

Individual ballot

And the upcoming legislative elections - which will be held for the first time in accordance with the electoral law drafted by President Kais Saied and according to the system of voting for individuals - 1058 candidates, including 936 men and 122 women (12%), which is the first noticeable decline among women.

The next Tunisian parliament - whose deputies will be elected on December 17, for a term of 5 years - consists of 161 seats.

The upcoming elections will be held amidst the boycott of the opposition Salvation Front, of which Ennahda is the most prominent component, as well as the Free Destourian Party, the Democratic Current, the Republican Party, the Ettakatol Party, the leftist Labor Party, the Afek Tounes Party, and other parties and currents.