Tunisian President Kais Saied’s belated response to criticism that nearly 90 percent of the country stayed home during the first round of parliamentary elections this past weekend—that it was like judging a sports match halfway through—did little to capture either the scale of the electoral disaster or its consequences.
The polls, held on Dec. 17, fell very much in the vein of catastrophe foretold, with the bulk of Tunisia’s political parties either shut out of the process or boycotting it altogether. For some, the boycott was likely an opportunity to avoid the judgment of the voters; for others, it was a principled defense of what they saw as democracy. For most, the boycott was a mixture of both.
Thus, it was left to self-funded individuals to foment some enthusiasm for—or even awareness of—the vote. That they didn’t manage to do so surprised no one. How they may do in the second, as-yet unscheduled, round remains to be seen.
