Experts Plan Framework for Future Elections in Tunisia

At the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) conference on March 12-13, legal and electoral experts discussed the future framework for Tunisia’s elections.

In October of this past year, Tunisian voters elected a 217-member National Constituent Assembly (NCA), nine months after autocratic President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali was ousted. Human Rights Watch recognized the elections as, “relatively free and fair,” and international and local observers hailed the vote as a model for other countries, especially those that managed to topple their respective authoritarian regimes. However, voices of concern have been raised over how the next general elections will look.

Denis Petit, an international lawyer specializing in electoral law, observed that Tunisia “cannot embark on constitutional reforms and electoral procedures simultaneously.” Petit said that the constitution must contain certain electoral principles before any logistical plans are made for the next vote.

The October 23rd Constituent Assembly elections followed an ad hoc legal blueprint that had been drawn up by individual decrees and executive orders of the Beji Caid Essebsi-led transitional government. The upcoming general elections, on the other hand, will be based on permanent electoral laws. Some of these laws will be housed in the constitution, and others will be individually drafted legal texts – both of which will be permanent reform documents intended to guide elections for cycles to come.

The constitution will also lay out a new system of governance for Tunisia, and this will have a direct impact on how elections are run. The type of democratic system Tunisia will be using – presidential, parliamentary, or a mixture of both – along with the form of representation and term length, are all foundational principles that have yet to be legally defined.

Speakers at the conference agreed that Tunisian citizens need to be aware of the changes effected by the new constitution – and that the government needs to be the one to educate them.

“The constituencies need to be properly educated regarding the form of government they will be voting on,” said Chafik Sarsar, director of the political science department at the University of Law and Political Science in Tunis. He went on to explain that educated voter participation is crucial to ensuring a successful election.

Abdessalem Lachaâl, a lawyer and professor at the University of Legal, Social, and Political Sciences in Tunis, emphasized that the draft electoral code will be the first permanent electoral text following the uprisings. He said that this increases the onus on lawmakers to purge legal texts affiliated with legislation of the past government.

“We are starting from the ground up. To really succeed in elections and the general democratic experiment, we need to have well-advised expert opinion in writing the constitution,” he said.

The constitution will replace the one drafted by Habib Bourguiba’s regime in 1959.