Voters seemed to be at a loss of what to expect (AFP/File, Fethi Belaid)
TUNIS — Only about half of potential voters in Tunisia have registered to cast their ballot in October polls, the first since the January ouster of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, early figures showed Sunday.
Just over 3.7 million of an estimated seven million potential voters had added their names to the roll, a member of the independent election commission, Larbi Chouikha, told AFP ahead of the close of registration at midnight (2300 GMT).
The provisional figure, which does not include an estimated 700,000 to 800,000 Tunisians of voting age abroad, represented about 52 percent of potential voters still in the country.
The commission will release official figures on Tuesday.
Registration opened on July 11 and was supposed to close on August 2, but was prolonged due to a slow turnout.
The October 23 election will be for a constituent assembly charged with drawing up a new constitution to replace that of the former dictatorial regime.
Potential voters seemed to be at a loss of what to expect from the vote.
“I took part in the revolution for a democratic Tunisia,” said 21-year-old Walid in a small workshop in the poor Ettadhamen district, which saw some of the worst violence in the month-long uprising that led to Ben Ali’s flight to Saudi Arabia on January 14.
“I called for dignity and freedom and I even cried tears of joy when they announced Ben Ali’s flight, but what happened to change? I’m still poor and may be all my life.”
The provisional government, the body in charge of reforms and political parties have so far failed to explain what will happen in the country’s transition to democratic rule, local residents said.
“I can see people quarrel on television, but I don’t see a future president among them,” complained Aisha, a housewife who mistakenly believed that the vote will be about a new president.
The mood also seemed grim in the upscale El-Manar neighbourhood.
“I refuse to take part in a show written by a bad scriptwriter,” said Mohamed, a banker.
“I don’t trust this government of old men, or this body where they’re fighting over partisan interests, and not even the legal process,” he added.
Demonstrations have resumed after a lull under the second provisional government led by Beji Caid Essebsi, in what appears to be the expression of a crisis of confidence between the population and the transitional authorities.
In recent protests no mention was made of the voter registration or the election, but demonstrators called for an independent legal system and a purge of members of Ben Ali’s RCD party, even “a new revolution”.
“They left through the door and come back through the window,” said Ahmed, an engineer, referring to the parties running in the election whom he suspects of being dominated by Ben Ali party members.
Ironically, the decades-long mind-numbing dictatorship may also explain voters’ disinterest.
“I care about anything but the election,” said 37-year-old businessman Saber, speaking in a cafe in the company of his girlfriend. “Life is too short.”
Voter apathy shows that people “are challenging the transitional government as it did not take into account the revolutionary slogans and failed to gain the trust of young people”, sociologist Mahdi Mabrouk told AFP.
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