UGTT says second spherical will trigger chaos after a record-low turnout within the first spherical of parliamentary elections on Saturday.
Tunisia’s strongest commerce union, the Tunisian Common Labour Union (UGTT), has warned the nation’s president that the second spherical of controversial parliamentary elections needs to be postponed to keep away from chaos.
The UGTT’s assertion on Thursday, which stated that the brand new parliament can have no legitimacy, adopted a record-low turnout in Saturday’s elections, when solely 11.2 p.c of eligible voters participated.
That lack of participation has led to additional calls from the Tunisian opposition for President Kais Saied to step down.
“I used to be anticipating that after low turnout, the president would say that he obtained the message and admit that the trail was unsuitable … however he's going forward along with his plan,” Noureddine Taboubi, the pinnacle of the UGTT, stated.
“It might be sensible to postpone the second spherical to keep away from chaos,” Taboubi stated.
Saied, nevertheless, has stated that turnout ought to solely be judged after the second spherical of voting is held.
Saied had suspended an opposition-dominated parliament in July 2021, earlier than altering the structure to weaken the establishment and make it subservient to the presidency, in what the opposition has labelled a “coup”.
The election course of was additionally modified, with a celebration checklist system deserted, and candidates not allowed to obtain funding from any political celebration.
The UGTT, which has greater than one million members, has neither aligned itself absolutely with Saied nor the opposition.
It initially backed Saied’s strikes to droop parliament however withdrew assist after the president wrote a brand new structure, which was handed in a low-turnout referendum in July.
The UGTT’s membership numbers make it extraordinarily highly effective, and it has beforehand paralysed the financial system with its strikes, in addition to enjoying a serious function within the 2011 revolution.
There at the moment are fears in Tunisia, and from the worldwide group, that the nation is sliding away from democratic rule, having initially been one of many few success tales of the Arab Spring.
Saied, nevertheless, has stated that his strikes have been essential to battle again in opposition to a political elite he claims is responsible for corruption and Tunisia’s poor financial system.
It was on that platform that the populist was in a position to win the presidency in 2019, however Tunisia’s financial system has proven few indicators of bettering since then.
Saturday’s first spherical of parliamentary elections resulted in few conclusive outcomes.
Runoffs can be held in most Tunisian areas in February after solely 21 candidates secured victory, the electoral fee stated this week, though it didn't specify a date for the vote.
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