It shut down the window for candidates in Tunisia for the legislative elections that will be conducted on December 17 when the opposition political parties disrupted it and amid worries that this might affect voter turnout rates.
After the door of candidacy was closed on Thursday evening, 1429 candidates—including 215 women, or 15% of the total—submitted their candidacy papers for these elections, according to a statement made by Farouk Bouakkar, the chairman of the Independent High Electoral Commission, for government television.
Former members of the disbanded parliament, particularly from the “People’s Movement” and other parties, are among the candidates, although the majority of them are fresh faces with little political experience.
The initial list of candidates who will run in the elections and compete for the 161 seats in the new parliament will also be made public by the election commission next Thursday, opening the field to political advertising from November 15 to December 15, assuming that voting begins abroad on December 16 and at home on December 17.
The fact that the elections will still take place in spite of boycotts by opposition parties like the “Ennahda Movement” party, which has been in control of Parliament since 2011, is noteworthy. These parties were protesting President Qais Saeed’s decision to amend the electoral law and were rejecting his political project.
While the president’s detractors claim that the electoral law, which Said approved and which will be based on the parliamentary elections, was created for the system of one individual rule and to the parliament without powers, and that it reduces political parties’ representations and participation in political life.
However, Saeed denied his attempt to exclude the parties from the next parliament, and said that this law is “in response to the will of the people.
The new election law “allows the removal of trust from the deputy in the form of his breach and shortening in completing his obligations and job. Tunisians will choose their candidates on an individual basis rather than choosing from party lists.
Elections for the Tunisian parliament are ongoing. Hundreds of files are running
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