On Sunday evening, polling stations closed their doors after Tunisians finished voting in the elections that took place in 2,155 districts for the first time in the country’s history.
A member of the Supreme Elections Commission, Belkacem Ayachi, said on Sunday that the second round of local council elections will be held in mid-February.
Al-Ayashi indicated that the authority will announce the final results of the first round elections for local councils before the end of January 2024.
He explained that the candidates who did not receive a majority of votes in the voting process on Sunday will participate in the second round of local council elections, which is expected to take place in mid-February.
How does the Tunisian street view the local elections?
Tunisian researcher and journalist Ayman Al-Zamali tells Sky News Arabia that the concentration of institutions approved by the 2022 Constitution in Tunisia continues according to new approaches that were cut off with the control of the Brotherhood movement, its followers, and its allies in Tunisia for a decade, which exhausted the country economically, socially, and security-wise.
Al-Zamali added: “On Sunday, Tunisians went to the polling stations to elect local councils. These councils will include members of the National Council of Regions and Regions, which represents the second parliamentary chamber in Tunisia, according to an approach that enables marginalized and less fortunate regions to have voices and representatives in a second legislative chamber that discusses laws.” development and everything related to financial law issues.”
Regarding the priorities on the local councils’ work agenda, Zamali says: “Tunisians are waiting for the local councils to devote themselves to working to create visions that translate local demands, to attach deanships and delegations that represent the smallest territorial division in the country, especially those that suffer from high rates of unemployment, lack of employment opportunities, and lack of development facilities.” “And their developmentally fortunate counterparts.”
Al-Zamali continued, saying: “The philosophy in establishing these councils aims to focus the localities on searching for solutions from their core, not those superficial solutions that experience has proven to sidestep reality and the tangible demands of citizens.”
Because it is the first experience of its kind in Tunisia to elect local councils, Al-Zamali believes that the low turnout rates at polling stations indicate that citizens do not represent the importance of these local councils, in addition to the continued reverberation of the resignation of the general Tunisian people from engaging in public affairs due to what Tunisia experienced during The previous decade of treating public positions as personal and party spoils inflicted huge losses on the country, and caused the spread of the infection of corruption that ravaged all facilities, areas, and local and central government as well.
Wide hopes
The expert in political affairs and head of the Free Tunisia Forum, Hazem Al-Qasuri, considered that local elections are a sign of participatory and direct democracy that will be a real lever for comprehensive development throughout the country and a translation of the demands of the Tunisian people from the nineteenth century to today.
He explained that “the Black Decade revealed their dependency on foreign affairs and their workers, and the corrective movement undertaken by President Kais Saied was aimed at restoring power to the Tunisian people and siding with their aspirations for work and dignity, their sovereignty over their wealth, and their sovereign decision.”
Al-Qasouri stressed that his country “is entering a pivotal stage by consolidating the democratic structure established by the 2022 Constitution and completing its constitutional institutions to focus on comprehensive development and returning rights to the original holder of power.”
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2023-12-24 23:15:46
