All Eyes on Turnout as Tunisia Votes again after Boycott

In the streets of Tunis, campaigning has been muted, with few posters on the walls and few well-known faces among the candidates. FETHI BELAID / AFP
In the streets of Tunis, campaigning has been muted, with few posters on the walls and few well-known faces among the candidates. FETHI BELAID / AFP
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All Eyes on Turnout as Tunisia Votes again after Boycott

In the streets of Tunis, campaigning has been muted, with few posters on the walls and few well-known faces among the candidates. FETHI BELAID / AFP
In the streets of Tunis, campaigning has been muted, with few posters on the walls and few well-known faces among the candidates. FETHI BELAID / AFP

Tunisians are to vote again on Sunday in elections for a parliament stripped of its powers, the final pillar of President Kais Saied's remake of politics in the birthplace of the Arab Spring.

The second-round vote comes as the North African country grapples with a grave economic crisis and deep political divisions over Saied's July 2021 power grab.

Some 262 candidates, including just 34 women, are running for 131 seats in an election whose first round last month saw just 11.2 percent of registered voters take part.

That was the lowest turnout of any national vote since the 2011 revolt that overthrew Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and triggered copycat uprisings across the Arab world.

The final round comes 18 months after Saied sacked the government and suspended parliament, later moving to seize control of the judiciary and pushing through a constitution last July that gave his office almost unlimited executive power.

Youssef Cherif, the director of Columbia Global Centers in Tunis, said Tunisians had a "lack of interest" in politics.

"This parliament will have very little legitimacy, and the president, who is all-powerful thanks to the 2022 constitution, will be able to control it as he sees fit," he said.

Lawyer and political expert Hamadi Redissi said the new assembly would "not have to approve the government, nor can it censor it without a two-thirds majority" of both parliament and a council of regional representatives, whose make-up has yet to be defined.

The legislature will have almost zero power to hold the president to account.

As during the first round, most political parties -- which have been sidelined by a system that bans candidates from declaring allegiance to a political grouping -- called for a boycott.

On the streets of Tunis, campaigning has been muted, with few posters on the walls and few well-known candidates.

And despite Saied's break with the traditional political class, many Tunisians are skeptical of all politicians.

"I don't feel I can trust anyone, so I'm not going to vote," said carpenter Ridha.

- 'Edge of collapse' -
The electoral board has organized televised debates to try to spark interest among those voters who supported Saied's bid for the presidency in 2019.

But Tunisians, struggling with inflation of over 10 percent and repeated shortages of basic goods from milk to petrol as well as transport workers' and teachers' strikes, have more urgent priorities than politics.

Last week's delivery of 170 trucks of food, a gift from the Tripoli-based government of war-torn Libya, was seen by many as a humiliation.

Redissi said the country was on "the edge of collapse".

"Along with soaring prices, we're seeing shortages and the president is pathetically blaming 'speculators, traitors and saboteurs'," he said.

But Cherif said that, despite widespread discontent, it was "possible that the status quo will continue as long as the average Tunisian doesn't see a credible alternative to President Saied".

Saied faced calls to quit after the first round of the election, but the opposition remains divided into three blocs: the National Salvation Front including the Islamist-inspired Ennahda party, a grouping of leftist parties, and the Free Destourian Party.

The election takes place in the shadow of Tunisia's drawn-out negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout worth some $2 billion.

Cherif said the talks were stumbling over the United States' concerns for the future of Tunisian democracy and Saied's apparent reluctance to "accept the IMF's diktats" on politically sensitive issues including subsidy reform.

Redissi said there was a "blatant discrepancy" between Saied's rhetoric against the IMF and the program his government proposed to the lender "on the sly".

"We have a president who opposes his own government," he said.

He said the country's only hope lay in a "rescue plan" proposed by the powerful UGTT trade union federation, the League for Human Rights, Tunisia's Bar Association and the socio-economic rights group FTDES.



Palestinian Authority Says Internet Down in Gaza After Attack on Fibre Optic Cable

Palestinians charge their mobile phones from a point powered by solar panels provided by Adel Shaheen, an owner of an electric appliances shop, as electricity remains cut during the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip October 19, 2023. REUTERS/Mohammed
Palestinians charge their mobile phones from a point powered by solar panels provided by Adel Shaheen, an owner of an electric appliances shop, as electricity remains cut during the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip October 19, 2023. REUTERS/Mohammed
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Palestinian Authority Says Internet Down in Gaza After Attack on Fibre Optic Cable

Palestinians charge their mobile phones from a point powered by solar panels provided by Adel Shaheen, an owner of an electric appliances shop, as electricity remains cut during the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip October 19, 2023. REUTERS/Mohammed
Palestinians charge their mobile phones from a point powered by solar panels provided by Adel Shaheen, an owner of an electric appliances shop, as electricity remains cut during the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip October 19, 2023. REUTERS/Mohammed

The Palestinian Authority said internet and fixed-line communication services were down in Gaza on Thursday following an attack on the territory's last fibre optic cable it blamed on Israel.

"All internet and fixed-line communication services in the Gaza Strip have been cut following the targeting of the last remaining main fibre optic line in Gaza," the PA's telecommunications ministry said in a statement, accusing Israel of attempting to cut Gaza off from the world, AFP reported.

"The southern and central Gaza Strip have now joined Gaza City and the northern part of the Strip in experiencing complete isolation for the second consecutive day," the ministry said in a statement.

It added that its maintenance and repair teams had been unable to safely access the sites where damage occurred to the fibre optic cable.

"The Israeli occupation continues to prevent technical teams from repairing the cables that were cut yesterday", it said, adding that Israeli authorities had prevented repairs to other telecommunication lines in Gaza "for weeks and months".

The Palestinian Red Crescent said the communication lines were "directly targeted by occupation forces".

It said the internet outage was hindering its emergency services by impeding communication with first responder teams in the field.

"The emergency operations room is also struggling to coordinate with other organisations to respond to humanitarian cases."

Maysa Monayer, spokeswoman for the Palestinian communication ministry, told AFP that "mobile calls are still available with very limited capacity" in Gaza for the time being.

Now in its 21st month, the war in Gaza has caused massive damage to infrastructure across the Palestinian territory, including water mains, power lines and roads.