Tunisians yesterday voted in their first local elections since the 2011 Arab Spring revolution, a crucial step toward consolidating the country’s exceptional democracy.
The North African nation’s 5.3 million voters had more than 2,000 candidate lists to choose from in the vote for city and town councils across the country.
The councils are being given greater powers in an effort to decentralize decisionmaking and boost long-marginalized inland regions.
The elections are breaking new ground on multiple levels.
Women make up 49 percent of the candidates, in part thanks to legal measures passed in the past few years to encourage equality.
One of the leading candidates is pharmacist Souad Abderrahim, running to become the first female mayor of the capital, Tunis.
In the Mediterranean resort town of Monastir, Jewish sewing machine repairman Simon Slama is running with the Muslim party Ennahda.
Meanwhile, nearly half of the candidates are independents and many are totally new to politics.
“These elections are a historic step ... they will bring participatory democracy to a local level, where daily problems are managed and where citizens can really make their voices heard,” said the head of the EU’s observer mission, Fabio Massimo Castaldo.
Observers said the independent candidates could perform well, riding on disillusionment that the leading parties have not fulfilled the promises of the 2011 revolution, when Tunisian protesters overthrew their long-time strongman and unleashed uprisings around the Arab world.
Ennahda, considered the best-organized party, was running lists in every constituency and expected to come out with the most winners.
It was followed by the secular Nida Tounes party of Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi, which runs the central government in a coalition with Ennahda.
A big question was turnout. Apathy is widespread, despite anger at the country’s 15 percent unemployment and 7 percent inflation.
It is an especially big problem for Tunisia’s youth, who drove the 2011 uprising, but have not seen their opportunities improve in the years since.
The president issued a last-minute appeal to Tunisians to take advantage of their freedom to vote — exceptional in a region marked by authoritarian leaders or Libya’s violent, lawless chaos.
“We must send the world a message, to say that our choice for democracy is the best,” he said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of