MOST RECENT ELECTIONS:

Presidential and Parliamentary
25 October 2009

Description of Electoral System:

(courtesy of IFES election guide)

The President is elected by popular vote to serve a 5-year term.

In the Chamber of Deputies (Majlis al-Nuwaab) 212 members are elected by popular direct  vote to serve 5-year terms.

Constitutional amendments in 2002 established an upper house within the Tunisia legislature. The Chamber of Councilors (Majlis al-Mustasharin. The size of the upper house has not yet been determined, but the constitution limits the number of members to two-thirds that of the number of members of the Chamber of Deputies, they are elected through secret and direct vote to serve 6 years

Electoral Systems Snapshot

(Courtesy of International IDEA)

*Click on links for definitions

WANT MORE ELECTION RELATED STATS FOR TUNISIA? Go to "election databases" on the left-hand menu of this page OR comparative data on the right-hand menu and choose your area of interest.

Presidential and Parliamentary Elections

Tunisia will hold presidential and parliamentary elections in October 2009. President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, currently serving a fourth term after amending the constitution in 2004 to permit his candidacy, has pledged that the elections will be held in a transparent, democratic manner..Read more

To find more news on the the 2009 Tunisian elections, please go to this Portal.

Politics in Tunisia

(courtesy of wikipedia)

Politics in Tunisia take place under a framework of a presidential republic. The President of Tunisia is both head of state and head of government, and there is a pluriform multi-party system dominated by the Democratic Constitutional Rally. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Chamber of Deputies of Tunisia.

The current Constitution was adopted on June 1, 1959 soon after its independence from France. The constitution has been changed twice to allow the President to remain in power: initially from two to three terms, and then from three to five. It was amended on July 12, 1988 to limit to two the number of terms a president is allowed to run. In 1998 it was amended to allow the President three terms. In 2002 it was changed to allow the president to rule for five terms.

President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has been in office since 1987 when he deposed Habib Bourguiba, who had been President since Tunisia's independence from France in 1956. He is currently in his fourth term, having been reelected in 2004. The ruling party, the Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD), was the sole legal party for 25 years — when it was known as the Socialist Destourian Party (PSD) — and still dominates political life.