This is the lowest voter turnout since the 2011 revolution. Tunisians massively shunned the ballot box on Saturday, December 17, when they were called to renew their Parliament, a ballot wanted by President Kaïs Saïed to put an end to to the process initiated by its coup de force in July 2021.

A new Assembly of 161 deputies, with very limited powers, must replace the one that Kaïs Saïed had frozen on July 25, 2021, arguing that the democratic institutions resulting from the first revolt of the Arab Springs were blocked, after the fall of dictator Ben Ali in 2011.

The president of the Isie electoral authority, Farouk Bouasker, announced a turnout of 8.8%.

Preliminary results of this first round of legislative elections will be announced on Monday.

>> To read also: "Candidatures, election, Parliament ... new instructions for legislative elections in Tunisia"

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This is the lowest voter turnout since the 2011 revolution, after record years of almost 70% (October 2014 legislative elections) and it is three times less than for the referendum on the Constitution this summer (30 .5%), already marked by strong abstention.

This new parliament "is supposed to be more democratic and representative than all previous parliaments in the country's history," quipped analyst Youssef Chérif on Twitter.

Farouk Bouasker recognized a "modest but not shameful rate", believing that it was explained by "the total absence of vote buying (...) with foreign funding", unlike, according to him, certain polls of the past .

President Saïed had tried in the morning to mobilize the nine million voters by evoking "a historic opportunity to regain your legitimate rights".

Accusing him of "dictatorial drift", the main parties and in the first place the Islamist-inspired movement Ennahdha, his pet peeve and former majority party in Parliament, boycotted this vote for which Kaïs Saïed had imposed a single-member voting system where candidates could not display their affiliation.

Another factor explaining the disaffection: the candidates (1,055), half teachers or civil servants, were mostly unknown, with less than 12% women in a country committed to parity.

Even the powerful UGTT trade union center deemed these legislative elections unnecessary.

The main concern of the 12 million Tunisians remains the high cost of living, with inflation of nearly 10% and recurring shortages of milk, sugar or rice.

>> To read also: "From the coup de force of Kaïs Saïed to the legislative elections, how Tunisia got bogged down in the crisis"

After a second round by early March, the Assembly of Deputies will have very limited prerogatives under the new Constitution voted in July.

"Monopoly of Power"

Parliament will not be able to impeach the president and it will be almost impossible for it to censure the government.

It will take ten deputies to propose a law and the president will have priority to pass his own.

"This vote is a formality to complete the system imposed by Kais Saïed and concentrate power in his hands," political scientist Hamza Meddeb told AFP, referring to a parliament "devoid of all power".

The ballot is "a tool used by President Saïed to confer legitimacy on his monopoly of power", abounds analyst Hamish Kinnear, of the firm Verisk Maplecroft.

But the establishment of a Parliament will allow, according to him, "a return to greater political predictability" and will facilitate obtaining aid from foreign donors.

Tunisia, whose coffers are empty, has requested a new loan of two billion dollars from the IMF, which conditions other foreign aid.

With AFP

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