Low numbers as Tunisians vote in presidential election with competition muted

Incumbent Kais Saied is facing only two other candidates and his main rival is in jail

Tunisian soldiers deliver ballot boxes to a polling station in Ariana, near Tunis, on Saturday. AFP

Tunisia was on Sunday holding its third presidential election since its uprising in 2011, with the atmosphere tense after protests over the jailing of one candidate.

The president of the Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE), Farouk Bouasker, said at the Palais Des Congres Media Centre that it recorded an initial turnout of 27.7 per cent, according to data collected after all polling stations closed at 6pm local time.

Only 28.5 per cent of eligible voters in Tunisia took part, while of the more than 600,000 living abroad, about 16 per cent began casting ballots in 58 countries on Friday, the ISIE said.

Only 6 per cent of those aged 18 to 35 voted in the presidential elections, compared to 94 per cent aged 36 and above. More than nine million Tunisians are eligible to vote.

President Kais Saied is vying for a second five-year term and faces little competition, with only two candidates standing against him: Zouheir Maghzaoui of the pan-Arab nationalist People’s Movement, and Ayachi Zammel of the Azimoun party.

Mr Zammel is in prison starting a sentence of 13 years and eight months for falsifying the signatures of voters needed to endorse his candidacy, but the sentence must be approved by the Court of Cassation to be considered final.

ISIE board member Najla Abrougui told journalists there is a possibility that the votes obtained by Mr Zammel could be cancelled. "There is a legal text that keeps this hypothesis on the table,” Ms Abrougui said.

According to article 143 of the basic law regulating the election authority's functions, which was amended a few days before Sunday's vote, the results obtained by candidates could be partially or entirely cancelled if there has been a conclusive ruling indicating that they have committed violations that had an effect on the integrity of the electoral process.

Despite the low turn out in Sunday's vote, many of those who showed up say that this political event is the only way they believe they can improve their situation.

"I came here to vote for the right guy that would take into consideration our country's interests and the Tunisian people's conditions," Sebti Ben Nssib, 73, a retiree from the private sector, told The National after casting his ballot at the Rue De Marseille school polling station.

Mr Ben Nssib says he hopes the president he voted for would be able to improve the livelihoods of people, with basic rights such as education, health care, decent housing and a better socio-economic situation for all.

"If Tunisians would all come together hand in hand, by God's will our situation with be much better," he said.

Mr Ben Nssib's wife, Halima, a retiree from the Ministry of Social Affairs, echoed her husband's hope for change in several vital sectors to be fulfilled after the election.

"We need to help our country stand up again and we want to see some changes in the economic situation," she told The National.

"We want to ensure that we create a decent ground to raise future generations and for that reason we can only have big hope in the future."

The presidential election is the third since a 2011 uprising ousted long-serving president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Observers and voters have criticised the lack of competition this time after candidates were disqualified. The elections authority has barred 14 candidates from taking part, citing insufficient endorsements and other technicalities.

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Tunis on Friday, decrying what they called growing repression.

More than 5,000 polling stations and 9,600 voting offices were open in 24 governorates across the nation on Sunday. About 57 tents have also been set up in the remote rural areas of Ben Arous, Ariana, El Kef, Monastir and Sfax to enable voting.

Preliminary results are expected on Monday evening, spokesman for the electoral authority, Mohamed Tlili Mansri, told state-owned news agency Tap.