The Tunisian Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE) yesterday announced that it had received 57 appeals against the preliminary results of the first round of the early legislative elections held on 17 December.
Head of the ISIE, Farouk Bouaskar, said: “The ISIE recorded 57 appeals on the preliminary results of the legislative elections announced on December 19.” Adding that preparations have begun for the second round, which is scheduled to start in early February 2023.
Some 23 out of 154 seats in Parliament were decided in the first round, with candidates competing for 131 seats in the second round.
According to Bouaskar, “some candidates have submitted these appeals to the Administrative Court, whether by those who did not win in the elections or those who won, and their results were totally or partially cancelled because they committed electoral crimes.”
He announced that 262 candidates will compete in the second round, including 34 women and 228 men.
Voter turnout was at an all time low in December’s ballot with the ISIE saying only 8.8 per cent had cast their vote, it later raised the number to 25 per cent.
In the first round, the turnout rate was 11.22 per cent out of 9.2 million voters, according to the ISIE.
Tunisian parties said the low turnout reflected a popular rejection of the policies of President Kais Saied and called for holding early presidential elections.
