Elections in Tunisia

Following the 2011 Tunisian revolution, Elections in Tunisia for the president and the unicameral Assembly of the Representatives of the People are scheduled to be held every five years. The assembly can be dissolved before finishing a full term.

Prior to the revolution, elections were held every five to six years, and elected both the president and members of both legislative branches to the national government of the Republic of Tunisia. Following the revolution, elections were held for a Constituent Assembly to decide on a new constitution for Tunisia.

Presidential elections

Main article: Politics of Tunisia

The president of Tunisia is directly elected by universal suffrage for a 5-year term. The president is elected by majority, with a second round with the top-two finishers if no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote in the first round. The first direct presidential election after the revolution was held in 2014. A person can not serve more than two terms as president, whether consecutive or not.

Pre-revolution

Prior to the revolution, the President was elected to five-year terms with no term limit. He appointed a prime Minister and cabinet, who play a strong role in the execution of policy. Regional governors and local administrators are appointed by the central government. Mayors and municipal councils, which fill a local consultative role, are elected. This system was established by a provision of the country's Code of Personal Status, introduced by the former President Habib Bourguiba in 1956.

Parliamentary elections

Tunisia's legislative branch consists of the Assembly of the Representatives of the People, which consists of 217 seats. The first elections for the Assembly of the Representative of the People occurred on 26 October 2014.

Electoral System

The assembly is directly elected by the people using party-list proportional representation, with the individual seats distributed between lists in a constituency using largest remainder method. The lists are closed, a voter can only choose between lists, and not individual candidates. The lists are required to alternate between men and women. The assembly is elected for a 5-year term, but can be dissolved earlier by the president following a failure to form a government, or a failed confidence vote.

Distribution of seats

Constituencies are based on the governorates of Tunisia. Each governorate is allocated one seat for every 60000 inhabitants, with one more seat if the remaining number of inhabitants exceed 30000. Additionally, governorates with less than 270000 inhabitants are granted two extra seats, while governorates with between 270000 and 500000 inhabitants granted one extra seat. A constituency can have a maximum of 10 seats, if a governorate is entitled to more than 10 seats, it will be divided into two or more constituencies. Additionally, there are a number of constituencies representing Tunisians abroad.

For the 2011 and 2014 elections there were a total of 33 constituencies. There were 27 multi-member constituencies in Tunisia varying in size from four to ten seats and electing a total of 199. There are also six overseas constituencies electing a total of 18 seats: two constituencies in France electing five seats each, one three-seat constituency in Italy, a single-member constituency in Germany, a two-member constituency covering the rest of Europe and the Americas, and a two-member constituency covering the Arab world and the rest of the world.

Pre-revolution

The Chamber of Deputies of Tunisia (Majlis al-Nuwaab) was Tunisia’s lower Chamber. It had 189 seats and members were elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms. 20% of the seats were reserved for the opposition. The Chamber played a role in debate on national policy but never originated legislation. Elections were held in the last 30 days of each five-year term. To be eligible for office, one had to be a voter with a Tunisian mother or father and be at least 23 years.

Tunisia's upper chamber, the Chamber of Advisors, was created in July 2002 by Parliament. Its membership was restricted to two-thirds of the number of members in the Chamber of Deputies. Members were elected or appointed. One or two members (determined by size of population) were elected from each governance. These members were selected by local authorities. A third of the members were elected by a group of employers, farmers and workers. These seats were divided equally among the three groups. The remaining seats (41) were filled by qualified presidential appointees. All members sat for six-year terms and half of the membership was renewed every three years. To be eligible for office, a candidate had to be a voter with a Tunisian mother or father and at least 40 years old.

Latest elections

Presidential

Main article: Tunisian presidential election, 2014

 Summary of the 23 November and 21 December 2014 Tunisian presidential election result

Candidates		Parties	First round		Second round
			Votes	%	Votes	%
	Beji Caid Essebsi	Nidaa Tounes	1,289,384	39.46%	1,731,529	55.68%
	Moncef Marzouki	Congress for the Republic	1,092,418	33.43%	1,378,513	44.32%
	Hamma Hammami	Popular Front	255,529	7.82%
	Hechmi Hamdi	Current of Love	187,923	5.75%
	Slim Riahi	Free Patriotic Union	181,407	5.55%
	Kamel Morjane	National Destourian Initiative	41,614	1.27%
	Ahmed Néjib Chebbi	Republican Party	34,025	1.04%
	Safi Saïd	Independent	26,073	0.80%
	Mondher Zenaidi	Independent	24,160	0.74%
	Mustapha Ben Jaafar	Democratic Forum for Labour and Liberties	21,989	0.67%
	Kalthoum Kannou	Independent	18,287	0.56%
	Mohamed Frikha	Independent	17,506	0.54%
	Abderrazak Kilani	Independent	10,077	0.31%
	Mustapha Kamel Nabli (withdrawn)	Independent	6,723	0.21%
	Abdelkader Labaoui	Independent	6,486	0.20%
	Larbi Nasra	Voice of the People of Tunisia	6,426	0.20%
	Hamouda Ben Slama	Independent	5,737	0.18%
	Mohamed Hamdi (withdrawn)	Democratic Alliance Party	5,593	0.17%
	Mehrez Boussayene	Independent	5,377	0.16%
	Salem Chaïbi	Popular Congress Party	5,245	0.16%
	Samir Abdelli	Independent	5,054	0.15%
	Ali Chourabi	Independent	4,699	0.14%
	Mokhtar Mejri	Independent	4,286	0.13%
	Abderraouf Ayadi (withdrawn)	Wafa Movement	3,551	0.11%
	Yassine Chennoufi	Independent	3,118	0.10%
	Abderrahim Zouari (withdrawn)	Destourian Movement	2,701	0.08%
	Noureddine Hached (withdrawn)	Independent	2,181	0.07%
Total			3,267,569	100%	3,110,042	100%
Blank votes			22,009	0.66%	28,755	0.90%
Spoilt votes			50,088	1.50%	50,585	1.59%
Total votes			3,339,666		3,189,672
Turnout*			3,180,131	64.56%		%
Abstentions*			1,745,475	35.44%		%
Registered voters*			4,925,606
Source: Independent High Authority for Elections. First round: preliminary results and turnout, second round: preliminary results
* Excluding Tunisians abroad.

Parliamentary

Main article: Tunisian parliamentary election, 2014

 Summary of the 26 October 2014 Tunisian Assembly of the Representatives of the People election results

Party, coalition and independent lists		Votes	% Votes	Seats	% Seats	Swing
	Nidaa Tounes	1,279,941	37.56%	86	39.63%	N/A
	Ennahda Movement	947,014	27.79%	69	31.79%	−20
	Free Patriotic Union	140,873	4.13%	16	7.37%	+15
	Popular Front	124,046	3.64%	15	6.91%	+11
	Afek Tounes	102,915	3.02%	8	3.68%	+5
	Congress for the Republic	69,794	2.05%	4	1.84%	−25
	Democratic Current	66,396	1.95%	3	1.38%	N/A
	People's Movement	45,839	1.34%	3	1.38%	+1
	National Destourian Initiative	45,597	1.34%	3	1.38%	−2
	Current of Love	40,826	1.20%	2	0.92%	−24
	Republican Party	56,223	1.65%	1	0.46%	−15
	Democratic Alliance	43,371	1.27%	1	0.46%	N/A
	Farmers' Voice Party		%	1	0.46%	N/A
	Movement of Socialist Democrats		%	1	0.46%	−1
	National Front for Salvation		%	1	0.46%	N/A
	Independent lists List of the Call of Tunisians Abroad List for the Glory of the Djerid List of the Rehabilitation		%	3	1.38%	N/A
Total		3,408,170	100%	217
Votes cast for lists		3,408,207	%
Blank votes		65,069	%
Total authorized votes		3,473,276	%
Spoilt votes		106,010	%
Votes cast / turnout		3,579,257	69%
Abstentions			%
Registered voters
Source: Independent High Authority for Elections; ElectionsBlog.org

Past elections

2011 Constituent Assembly election

 Summary of the 23 October 2011 Tunisian Constituent Assembly election results

Parties		Votes	%	Seats
	Ennahda Movement	1,501,320	37.04	89
	Congress for the Republic	353,041	8.71	29
	Popular Petition	273,362	6.74	26
	Democratic Forum for Labour and Liberties	284,989	7.03	20
	Progressive Democratic Party	159,826	3.94	16
	The Initiative	129,120	3.19	5
	Democratic Modernist Pole	113,005	2.79	5
	Afek Tounes	76,488	1.89	4
	Tunisian Workers' Communist Party	63,652	1.57	3
	People's Movement	30,500	0.75	2
	Movement of Socialist Democrats	22,830	0.56	2
	Free Patriotic Union	51,665	1.26	1
	Democratic Patriots' Movement	33,419	0.83	1
	Maghrebin Liberal Party	19,201	0.47	1
	Democratic Social Nation Party	15,534	0.38	1
	New Destour Party	15,448	0.38	1
	Progressive Struggle Party	9,978	0.25	1
	Equity and Equality Party	7,621	0.19	1
	Cultural Unionist Nation Party	5,581	0.14	1
	Independent lists	62,293	1.54	8
	Unrepresented lists	1,290,293	31.83	–
Valid votes		4,053,148	94.06	217
Blank or invalid votes		255,740	5.94
Total		4,308,888	100.00
Voter turnout		51.97
Electorate		8,289,924
Source: Tunisia-Live.net

See also

• Electoral calendar
• Electoral system

External links

• Interview with Neila C. Hachicha: "Tunisia's Election Was Undemocratic at All Levels", Middle East Quarterly, a Tunisian politician explains obstacle to democracy in her homeland.
• Adam Carr's Election Archive