A delegation from the Congress, composed of seven observers from five European countries, has concluded its ad-hoc mission to assess the first local elections after the Arab Spring of 2011, held on Sunday in 350 Tunisian municipalities.
Three teams of the Congress followed the voting process in some 50 polling stations randomly chosen in selected regions of the country including Tunis and its environs, Bizerte, Beja, Kairouan and Sousse. "In the polling stations visited by the Congress, we found that the elections were well-organised overall, the staff was in general aware of the procedures and counting was carried out in an efficient and transparent manner", said Congress Head of Delegation, Xavier CADORET (France, SOC), in a first statement after the Election Day.
"Apart from individual organisational flaws and accusations regarding misuse of resources and other types of fraud which need to be addressed by the authorities, we have the impression that these elections have been accomplished despite difficult framework conditions, both politically and socio-economically speaking", stated Xavier CADORET regretting, at the same time, the low turnout. "The fact that only 34% of the electorate has exercised the right to vote needs to be seen against this socio-political backdrop and the disappointment of considerable parts of the population. Therefore, after the Election Day, the real long-term challenge for Tunisia is now to shape democracy at the local level - this is a tremendous chance for the country, if you want, decentralisation could be a new revolution, if successfully implemented", Mr CADORET underlined. The fact that authentic independent candidates participated successfully in the 6 May elections was a positive sign, according to him.
"At the same time, there is still a long way to go to achieving the required standards in terms of a fully-fledged electoral campaign and the role of the media in a genuine democratic environment, to mention only two examples. In this spirit, the authorities should also reconsider the current set of electoral rules which seem complex and over-restrictive, to some extent", Xavier CADORET stressed.
Further to this assessment mission, a written information report including further details and recommendations will be presented at the Congress Monitoring Committee meeting to be held on 28 June 2018 in Büyükçekmece, Turkey.
See also: The first municipal elections in Tunisia, a starting point for further decentralisation
Contact:
Renate ZIKMUND, Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Head of the Division of Local and Regional Election Observation, email: renate.zikmund@coe.int, Phone: +33 (0)6 59 78 64 55
