Tunisia’s electoral commission has announced that only 11 per cent of voters voted in the run-off of the parliamentary elections held on Sunday: even in the first round, last December, the turnout was around 11 per cent. The lack of interest in voting can be explained by the great discontent with President Kais Saied, who introduced increasingly authoritarian measures in the country and imposed a new electoral system, which only provided for independent candidates and not linked to parties. In essence, the powers of the new parliament will be limited and unclear.
Two weeks ago in Tunis, the capital, there were large protests to demand Saied’s resignation, organized in a non-random place and day: they took place on Avenue Habib Bourguiba, the same place where the demonstrators gathered in 2011 during the “Arab Spring”, and on January 14, the day on which President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was ousted in 2011.
– Read also: Thousands of people demonstrated in Tunis against President Kais Saied
