BEJA, TUNISIA // The older crowd of Tunisians waiting to vote in the country’s first election under a democratic constitution on Sunday reflected the disillusionment that still pervades the country three years after it launched the Arab Spring uprisings.
In the small town of Magoula, in the north-west region of Beja, younger voters were heavily outnumbered by the older generation, despite a government campaign urging people to take part in the process.
“Young people are just bored. They can’t focus on these elections,” said Oussama Al Amrani, 22, a physiotherapy student. “Maybe they lack maturity, whereas the older people think that voting is the way to help their country.”
High unemployment was among the chief concerns for young people as Tunisians went to the polls to elect a 217-member parliament.
The vote came after the adoption this year of a new constitution – a document that was approved by cross-party consensus last January and has been praised as one of the most progressive in the region on equality for women, freedom of expression and civil liberties.
The vote took place under heavier security than the vote three years ago to elect the constituent assembly, which also acted as an interim parliament for three years. Mainly national guards rather than army personnel were stationed outside voting centres in areas where there has been an Islamist militant presence.
Turnout in 2011 was 51 per cent. At least 50 per cent of the 5.2 million registered voters turned out to vote two hours before polls had closed, the official election commission said. The results of the vote are expected on Wednesday.
Under the Islamist-led party Ennahda, which came to power in the October 2011 election, when it won 37 per cent of votes cast, there was an upsurge in radical Islamist activity that Ennahda’s opponents blamed on the government’s tolerance of ultra-conservative Salafist preachers in mosques.
A new party, the secular Nidaa Tounes, was now seeking to ride a wave of disillusionment with the Ennahda-led government, which has been blamed for a sluggish economy.
The rise of Islamist militant groups in rural areas has also alarmed many voters.Sixty-one members of the security forces have been killed in attacks by militants, or by mines planted by them since late 2012, according to official figures.
The latest casualty was a member of the police special forces who was killed on Friday in a raid on a house in a Tunis suburb that killed six other people – five of whom were women.
Across the road from the polling station in Magoula, about 25 young men, some wearing conservative dress, sat watching the entrance to the polling station.
They said that they were there to support the “Islamist party” – but would not specify which one – and wanted to make sure that its main rival, Nidaa Tounes, would not attempt to offer voters cash in return for votes.
However, another group of young people said the pro-Islamist group’s aim was in fact to discourage supporters of the small, leftist Popular Front party from entering the polling station.
As recently as last year, Salafis in the town clashed with secularists over issues such as alcohol consumption, residents said.
Meanwhile, in the capital, Mona Trabelsi, 33, went to the polls with her family in tow.
She said that after Friday’s standoff with the militants, security was her biggest concern.
“We all decided we have to go to vote for a party that will protect us from terrorism.”