Weakened parliament elected in Tunisia

Only 11.3 percent of Tunisia’s roughly 8 million voters cast ballots on Sunday in a runoff parliamentary election. In the first round of the elections in December, the voter turnout was less than 9 percent.

Why did so few voters turn out? These elections took place after President Kais Saied disbanded the country’s prior parliament and rewrote the country’s constitution to give himself more power and the legislature less. Saied and his supporters said rewriting the constitution was needed to end political deadlock and solve national problems that include 15 percent unemployment. But political factions critical of Saied boycotted the most recent election. The opposition Work and Achievement Party was among the boycotters—party chief Abdellatif Meki questioned how leaders of parliament will fulfill their campaign promises with less power over the government.

Dig deeper: Read Jill Nelson’s report from the WORLD archives about Turkey’s shift to democracy.