Nissaf Brahmi
The local elections in Tunisia, which began on April 29 for security and military personnel – which is a precedent in the country – and on 6th May 2018 for the general civilian voters is the first municipal elections since the 2011 revolution, and the first free and fair local elections in the country’s history.
Despite a low turnout of 35.6 percent (compared to the 69 percent turnout in the 2014 legislative elections), the results of Tunisia’s May 6 municipal elections were positive overall.
Women were elected to represent 47 percent of the municipal council seats, youth under 35 years old won 37.57 percent of the seats (and those aged 35 to 45 won an additional 25.87 percent).
These elections have several repercussions on the political and partisan scene in Tunisia. What is their role in stabilizing or rearranging the current political scene?
In this context the paper tackled three main issues:
1-Legislative framework governing elections:
The legislative framework governing the local elections in Tunisia is based on three points: the Constitution, the Electoral Law and the review of Local Communities
2-General political context:
The repercussions of the results of local elections in Tunisia on the process of political participation on one hand and on the course of democratic transition on the other hand.
3-The implications of the results of municipal elections:
The map of the parties participating in the elections in the first section and then the issue of participation and abandonment of elections.
The paper showed that it is too early to assess the possibility that the municipal councils created by the recent elections will achieve success in transforming local government promises into actions and achievements that reflect positively on the lives of citizens and alleviate the living, services and development crises. The new political scene is the decline of the “Nidaa Tunis” Party and the Islamic Party “Alnahda” and the emergence of independent lists that may ally with the parties to ensure their position on the map as a whole.
The full paper available in Arabic: https://bit.ly/2UmgMKO