The fiasco of the legislative elections in Tunisia, marked by an abstention of more than 90%, is a snub for President Kais Saied, whose opposition demanded his departure on Sunday and who is weakened in his negotiations with the IMF over a crucial loan .
The leader of the main opposition coalition, Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, called on the president to "leave office immediately," facing an 8.8% turnout in the first round on Saturday.
This is the lowest rate since the 2011 revolution that ousted dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali from power and brought the first democracy to the Arab world. The highest participation, of almost 70%, dates from October 2014.
“It is a huge popular disavowal of the process” started on July 25, 2021, when Kais Saied froze Parliament and sacked his prime minister, seizing all powers, Chebbi told AFP on Sunday.
Some 91% of Tunisians "have turned their backs on their illegal process," continued Chebbi, president of the National Salvation Front (FSN), which includes the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha movement. He called on the other political parties to "agree on the appointment of a superior magistrate" capable of "supervising a new presidential election."
This electoral fiasco will complicate, according to the DSF, the negotiations between Tunisia and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a loan of almost 2,000 million dollars, which the highly indebted country urgently needs.
These legislative elections were to be the final point in the construction of a hyper-presidential system by President Saied, elected in 2019, with the replacement of the old assembly by a Parliament deprived of most of its powers after a constitutional review this summer. .
A new voting system barred any political affiliation for mostly unknown candidates, contributing to a drop in turnout, experts say.
The FSN and most other political parties, including Abir Moussi's (anti-Islamist) Free Destourian Party, boycotted the vote. Other opponents also called for Saied's resignation.
The very low rate "is a personal disavowal for Mr. Saied who decided on his own," analyzed the political scientist Hamadi Redissi, considering that "his legitimacy is in question." However, "the situation is blocked" because "there is no legal mechanism to impeach the president" in the new constitution, he told AFP.
The new Parliament, which will only be formed after a second round in early March, does not have this power and can, at best, censure the government, but after a complex process.
Still, the opposition "is weak and divided" between the secular and progressive camp on the one hand, and the FSN united around Ennahdha on the other, according to Redissi.
There is "little chance that he will join until the Ennahdha issue is resolved," he said, referring to this formation to which a large part of Tunisians attribute the economic and social failures of the last decade.
Hamdi Belgacem, an unemployed 37-year-old, attributed the low turnout to the anger of Tunisians. "People are angry about the economic situation and the high cost of living," he told AFP on the streets of Tunis on Sunday, stressing that he participated in the 2011 revolution and supported Saied's coup last year.
"He promised us investments and he didn't keep his promises. He promised us to fight corruption and he didn't. He promised us many things that he didn't keep." Abdelsalem, a 70-year-old retiree, highlights the "citizens who boycotted the ballot." “They are destitute, poor, unemployed and thinking about illegal migration,” he says.
