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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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US, Arab Mediators Make Some Progress in Gaza Peace Talks, No Deal Yet

Palestinians inspect damaged residential buildings where two Israeli hostages were reportedly held before being rescued during an operation by Israeli security forces in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Feb. 12, 2024. (AP)
Palestinians inspect damaged residential buildings where two Israeli hostages were reportedly held before being rescued during an operation by Israeli security forces in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Feb. 12, 2024. (AP)
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US, Arab Mediators Make Some Progress in Gaza Peace Talks, No Deal Yet

Palestinians inspect damaged residential buildings where two Israeli hostages were reportedly held before being rescued during an operation by Israeli security forces in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Feb. 12, 2024. (AP)
Palestinians inspect damaged residential buildings where two Israeli hostages were reportedly held before being rescued during an operation by Israeli security forces in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Feb. 12, 2024. (AP)

US and Arab mediators have made some progress in their efforts to reach a ceasefire accord between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, but not enough to seal a deal, Palestinian sources close to the talks said on Thursday.
As talks continued in Qatar, the Israeli military carried out strikes across the enclave, killing at least 17 people, Palestinian medics said.
Qatar, the US and Egypt are making a major push to reach a deal to halt fighting in the 15-month conflict and free remaining hostages held by the Hamas group before President Joe Biden leaves office.
President-elect Donald Trump has warned there will be "hell to pay", if the hostages are not released by his inauguration on Jan. 20.
On Thursday, a Palestinian official close to the mediation effort said the absence of a deal so far did not mean the talks were going nowhere and said this was the most serious attempt so far to reach an accord.
"There are extensive negotiations, mediators and negotiators are talking about every word and every detail. There is a breakthrough when it comes to narrowing old existing gaps but there is no deal yet," he told Reuters, without giving further details.
On Tuesday, Israeli Foreign Ministry Director General Eden Bar-Tal said Israel was fully committed to reaching an agreement to return its hostages from Gaza but faces obstruction from Hamas.
The two sides have been at an impasse for a year over two key issues. Hamas has said it will only free its remaining hostages if Israel agrees to end the war and withdraw all its troops from Gaza. Israel says it will not end the war until Hamas is dismantled and all hostages are free.
SEVERE HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
On Thursday, the death toll from Israel's military strikes included eight Palestinians killed in a house in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza's eight historic refugee camps, where Israeli forces have operated for more than three months. Nine others, including a father and his three children, died in two separate airstrikes on two houses in central Gaza Strip, health officials said.
There was no Israeli military comment on the two incidents.
More than 46,000 people have been killed in the Gaza war, according to Palestinian health officials. Much of the enclave has been laid waste and most of the territory's 2.1 million people have been displaced multiple times and face acute shortages of food and medicine, humanitarian agencies say.
Israel denies hindering humanitarian relief to Gaza and says it has facilitated the distribution of hundreds of truckloads of food, water, medical supplies and shelter equipment to warehouses and shelters over the past week.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. On Wednesday, the Israeli military said troops had recovered the body of Israeli Bedouin hostage Youssef Al-Ziyadna, along with evidence that was still being examined suggesting his son Hamza, taken on the same day, may also be dead.
"We will continue to make every effort to return all of our hostages, the living and the deceased," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.