Tunisians votes on toothless parliament
His moves were initially supported by many Tunisians tired of the messy and corrupt democratic system in the post-Ben Ali era.
Daily TribuneHis moves were initially supported by many Tunisians tired of the messy and corrupt democratic system in the post-Ben Ali era.
Tunis, Tunisia (AFP) — Tunisia holds a lackluster election on Saturday for a parliament with virtually no power, the final pillar in President Kais Saied's political overhaul in the birthplace of the Arab Spring.
The vote comes after three weeks of barely noticeable campaigning, with few posters in the streets and no serious debate among a public largely preoccupied with pressing financial concerns.
Opposition political groups in the North African country have called for a boycott, saying the poll is part of a "coup" against the only democracy to have emerged from the 2011 wave of uprisings across the region.
Last year, after months of political deadlock and economic crisis exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, Saied suspended parliament and sent tanks to surround it in a dramatic power grab more than a decade after a popular revolution unseated dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Saied, a former law professor, has since pushed through a new constitution giving the presidency almost unrestrained powers and laying the ground for a 161-seat rubber-stamp legislature.
His moves were initially supported by many Tunisians tired of the messy and corrupt democratic system in the post-Ben Ali era.
But almost a year and half on, the country's economic woes have gone from bad to worse, with 10 percent inflation and frequent shortages of milk, sugar and petrol fuelling a growing wave of emigration.
The previous legislature had far-reaching powers in the mixed presidential-parliamentary system enshrined in Tunisia's post-revolution constitution.
But candidates in Saturday's poll are standing as individuals under a system that neuters political parties including Saied's nemesis, the once powerful Islamist-leaning Ennahdha party.
The new chamber "won't be able to appoint a government or censure it, except under draconian conditions that are almost impossible to meet," said analyst Hamadi Redissi.
Analyst Hamza Meddeb told AFP the election was a "non-event" and predicted that few Tunisians would turn out to vote.
