#Tunisia : The “yes” to the new Constitution in Tunisia won by a large majority of “92 to 93%”, indicated to AFP the director of the Sigma Conseil institute, on the basis of a poll in the exit of the polls.
A total of 21.86% of the 9.3 million registered voters had voted by 6:00 p.m. GMT, according to Farouk Bouasker, president of the electoral authority (Isie).
Hassen Zargouni estimated that “to exceed 20% of voters is rather a good result”. In Tunisia, we vote less and less in recent years, “systematically below 40%”, he underlined, recalling that the participation fell from 52% in the legislative elections of 2011, after the fall of the dictator Ben Ali, at 32% in 2019 (out of 7 million voters).
According to Sigma Conseil, “between 1.8 and 1.9 million people” followed the call for a boycott, launched by the main parties opposed to Saied, who denounce a Constitution that is leading the country towards a dictatorship.
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Those who voted this time “are the most aggrieved middle classes, adults who feel cheated economically, politically and socially”, analyzed Mr. Zargouni.
There are “fairly few young people and people from the precarious and working classes who voted, because it was a complicated exercise, voting on a new Constitution”, he notes.
Tunisia is plunged into a deep economic crisis, characterized by high unemployment and a sharp decline in purchasing power over the past 10 years.
Those who voted “yes” had the main motivation to “get the country back on track and improve the situation”, according to Sigma Conseil. It is “rather a female, adult or even senior electorate, from Greater Tunis, the Sahel (Sousse, Monastir) and the north-west”, according to Zargouni. It is “the modernist part of the country”, the “nationalists”, sometimes nostalgic for the Ben Ali era.
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The second category includes “the fan club, those who support Kais Saied’s project or his person”, according to Zargouni. We find them “in the conservative south, towards Sfax, in the other Tunisia, which sees him as an intractable and severe leader”. According to Sigma Conseil, it is for many “young people aged 18 to 25”.
Voters who voted “no” did so, according to Sigma Conseil, above all “for fear of a return to dictatorship and absolute power”.
This study was carried out on Monday on a sample of more than 7,500 voters in 27 constituencies between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m.
The first official results are expected “Tuesday afternoon”, according to a spokesman for Isie, Mansri Tlili.