Tunisians vote in two milestone elections this autumn: Parliamentary elections take place on the 26th of October and the voters return to the polls on the 23rd November in order to choose a new President for the country. Both elections are the first ones organized under the new constitution that was passed in January this year.
One third of the alumni of the Tunisian School of Politics, supported by Demo Finland, are nominated as candidates in the parliamentary election. These 63 candidates are representing 15 different parties or electoral lists, and some are running as individual candidates. Equal youth and gender representation on the electoral lists is guaranteed by law; each list must introduce women, men and youth below 35 years of age among the top candidates. There are more than 13 000 candidates competing for 217 parliamentary seats.
Around 5.3 million Tunisians are registered as voters. This is a million voters more than in the constituent assembly elections held in 2011. The overall population of Tunisia falls just short of 11 millions.
According to Demo Finland’s local partner in Tunisia, CEMI, the campaigning has been going on in an orderly manner and it is expected that the elections will also be conducted without severe confrontation.