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Tunisia’s Electoral Commission Opens Door for Candidacy in Upcoming Parliamentary Elections

Presidential candidate Kais Saied speaks during an interview with Reuters, as the country awaits the official results of the presidential election, in Tunis, Tunisia September 17, 2019. (Reuters)
Presidential candidate Kais Saied speaks during an interview with Reuters, as the country awaits the official results of the presidential election, in Tunis, Tunisia September 17, 2019. (Reuters)
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Tunisia’s Electoral Commission Opens Door for Candidacy in Upcoming Parliamentary Elections

Presidential candidate Kais Saied speaks during an interview with Reuters, as the country awaits the official results of the presidential election, in Tunis, Tunisia September 17, 2019. (Reuters)
Presidential candidate Kais Saied speaks during an interview with Reuters, as the country awaits the official results of the presidential election, in Tunis, Tunisia September 17, 2019. (Reuters)

Head of Tunisia’s electoral commission Farouk Bouaskar announced Monday that 1,706 candidates across the country will compete for the 161 seats of the lower house of parliament.

Tunisia’s parliamentary elections are scheduled for December 2022.

Bouaskar said in press statements that the commission has received around 326,000 recommendations from registered voters for a number of candidates, who will be elected directly instead of via party lists.

On Sunday, the electoral commission published a list of its 27 central offices distributed around different areas, where candidates are to submit their nominations.

President Kais Saied vowed to make new changes to the electoral law he enacted in September, citing “manipulation” in the registration process of nominated candidates.

Several human rights organizations interested in electoral issues and a political party participating in the upcoming parliamentary elections expected Saied to draw back the conditions stating that the candidate shall obtain 400 endorsements from voters within the district, half of them women and a quarter of them under the age of 35, according to the law’s updated article 21.

Saied has not yet announced the expected amendment to the electoral law.

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Lebanese Prime Minister: No Turning Back on State Decision to Control All Arms

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.
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Lebanese Prime Minister: No Turning Back on State Decision to Control All Arms

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam emphasized on Friday that Lebanon has succeeded at making a new promising start despite all the challenges facing the process of reform and restoring confidence in the state.

He said the government has a task of restoring the confidence of its people, Arab brethrens, its friends, and the whole world in Lebanon as a state.

Salam made his remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat before heading to Baghdad leading a delegation of officials to take part in the Arab summit. He will “convey a message of promise and hope” about Lebanon to the Arab leaders and their people, he said, expressing deep trust in the capability to make remarkable achievements.

On the message he plans to convey at the Arab summit, Salam said he and the accompanying delegation want to assure that Lebanon has returned to the Arab fold. Lebanon is relentlessly working to “return to the Arab and international map...We also want the Arab summit to help Lebanon in pressuring Israel to withdraw from the entire Lebanese territories” it is occupying.

Salam stressed that Hezbollah lawmakers have agreed to the ministerial statement - based on which the government garnered the parliament’s confidence- which clearly states that weapons are restricted to the state’s authority. “The government is working on achieving this goal”, he said.

The Prime Minister pointed to the army’s efforts in that regard. He said the military has deployed in South Lebanon and continues to dismantle military infrastructures and intensifies measures to control the border with Syria in order stop all kinds of smuggling, not to mention the security measures it has taken at the country’s airport.

Salam emphasized that there will be no turning back in the decision to limit weapons to the state’s control.

On Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia, Salam said that there is a major turning point happening in the region and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has succeeded at drawing itself a major player in international relations.