Election Board Draft Law Comes Under Fire

Tunisian National Constituent Assembly

The National Constituent Assembly (NCA) will discuss tomorrow the controversial draft law establishing an Election Management Body to monitor the next Tunisian legislative and presidential elections.

The draft law has come under fire from non-governmental organizations monitoring Tunisian legislation, which say the proposed Election Management Body lacks transparency.

The NCA passed a law in December 2011 requiring that the government establish an independent body to oversee elections. The General Legislation Committee, led by Kolthoum Badreddine of the ruling Ennahdha party, began drafting the law in July, according to a report issued by the GLC last month.

However, the American-based Carter Center issued a press release on November 1, criticizing the draft law for lacking “sufficient measures to ensure the transparency and independence” of the Election Management Body.

The release urged the NCA “to promote public participation … and provide sufficient information to enable political actors and citizens to verify independently the integrity of all steps of the election process.”

At a press conference today, the Tunisian Association for the Integrity and Democracy of the Elections (ATIDE) presented an alternative law for an election oversight committee based on the experience of their 2,200 observers.

The existing draft law “contains controversial points that might represent a risk to the principles of independence, neutrality, and integrity of the electoral process,” ATIDE said in a press release.

An independent election authority was created to supervise the constitutional elections of October 2011 but was dissolved immediately after the NCA and government took shape.