First Municipal Election Since 2011 A Boost For Tunisian Democracy

The North African nation holds its first municipal elections since the Arab Spring of 2011. Some 57,000 people have signed up to run, and the election rules were crafted for inclusivity.

The municipal elections law stipulates the presence of at least one candidate with a physical disability among the first 10 candidates on each list, and the lists must be divided equally between men and women.

The candidate lists submitted to the Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE) revealed that over 1,800 individuals with special needs submitted their candidacy and that women candidates make up 47.46 per cent of the field.

It also revealed that over 75 per cent of registrations were candidates under the age of 45 and over 50 per cent were under 35. Though Tunisia has won praise for political compromises and a 2014 democratic constitution, according to Reuters, successive governments have failed to resolve deep economic and social problems that include high youth unemployment and marginalization in the country’s interior. Protests against price and tax hikes erupted in towns and cities across Tunisia in January.

Al-Monitor reports that 51 per cent of the electoral lists are party lists compared to 41 per cent independent and 8 per cent coalitional. Mounia al-Rabhi, a candidate on an independent list in Sidi Bou Zid province, described the vote to Al-Monitor as the “cornerstone of local governance to improve the conditions Tunisians live in,” adding that the municipal elections will give youths their first chance to change the political decision-making authority.”

Polling companies expect independent candidates to do well in the election, according to Al-Monitor, and the publication observes that competition will be heated among the established parties. Ennahda and Nidaa Tunis each have 350 lists in the elections, equivalent to the number of municipalities in the country. According to ISIE statistics, the opposition’s Popular Front follows with 132 lists, Machrouu Tounes with 84, the Democratic Current (Ettayar) with 72, Al-Irada Party with 47 lists and finally Afek Tounes with 46 lists. The Christian Science Monitor is looking at Tunis as a departure from the common pattern of governance in the region.

It observed in March that the Middle East can’t seem to shake its three governing models: nationalist dictators, reigning monarchs, and radical Islamists, and all three have in common the denial of the liberty of conscience. It points out that Tunisia enshrined such liberties in its 2014 Constitution after a wide public debate about Islam and freedom of conscience.

TunisianMonitorOnline (News Ahead)

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