Tunisian Voter Turnout: Discontent over Saied Leadership

Jess Diez
Director of Educational Programs & Managing Editor

December 20, 2022

On Wednesday, December 14, Tunisian President Kais Saied met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Binken to discuss the country’s upcoming parliamentary elections. Saied relayed to U.S. officials that his suspension of parliament in July of 2021 and subsequent political changes were critical to maintaining a functioning Tunisian nation. Three days later, Tunisia held its first parliamentary elections since Saied’s 2021 power-grab and 2022 constitutional referendum. Tunisians have expressed their concern over Saied’s leadership via public statements, mass-protests, and election boycotts — which led many to question the validity of last week’s polls. 

President Saied spoke with Blinken during the three-day US-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, D.C. Days before Tunisia’s elections, Saied publicly defended his reasoning behind his power-grab last year. Highlighted in Al-Monitor, he said “he had ‘no other alternative but to save the Tunisian nation’ when he froze the elected parliament in July 2021 and sacked his prime minister.”

The weeks leading up to the parliamentary elections were unlively, with little political discussion and action. Explained in Africa News, “the ballot for the new 161-seat assembly followed three weeks of barely noticeable campaigning, with no serious debate among a public worried with day-to-day economic survival.”

On the day of elections, Tunisia experienced a record-low voter turnout of 11.1%, with few Tunisians showing ‘real interest’ in the 1,055 candidates and the electoral process. Written in Zawya, “just over one million of the North African nation’s nine million registered voters had cast ballots. The figure is the lowest since the 2011 revolution that overthrew dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, down from 70 percent in 2014 legislative polls and just a third of the 30.5 percent in this summer’s vote on a new constitution cementing Saied’s authority.”

However, some have characterized the citizens straying away from voting as more than mere apathy or disinterest. Written in Al Jazeera, “Zoubeir Daly, a founding member of the Tunisian election observation association, Mourakiboun, explained that people were effectively staying away from the ballots as a silent protest rather than apathy. ‘It’s a statement about the people’s feelings on the situation of the country overall,’ he said.”

Saied’s critics argue that he is further endangering the democratic process that Tunisian citizens have fought for since the start of the Arab Spring. Highlighted in Ahram, “many believe their country’s decade-old democratic revolution has failed, a decade after Tunisia was the only nation to emerge from the Arab Spring protests with a democratic government.”

Saied’s main opposition coalition stated the record-low voter turnout showcases nationwide discontent over Saied and exemplifies the need for him to step down from power. Lebanese newspaper L’Orient Today highlighted Saied’s response to his opposition, saying that “‘certain known parties found nothing to focus on except turnout in the first round of the election,’ saying this was ‘like announcing the final result of a sporting event at the end of the first half’…In the statement from his office, Saied also noted that some of his critics are facing criminal charges in the courts — a reference to lawsuits targeting Ennahdha officials.”

The second round of parliamentary elections is set to occur early next year, with the assembly’s final make-up finalized by March 2023. Written in Middle East Monitor, Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE) in Tunisia “announced that 21 candidates won in the first round of the legislative elections, and a second round of voting [will] open in 133 constituencies.”