Ballot for the run-off local elections kicked off on Sunday morning at 8 a.m. in all polling stations and will continue until 6 p.m., announced President of the Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE) Farouk Bouasker. Speaking at the first press briefing held at the ISIE media centre at the El Menzah sports complex in Tunis, Bouasker said that all polling stations had opened their doors at 8 a.m. sharp and there had been no delays. He also pointed out that 779 constituencies are involved in the run-off local elections, out of a total of 2,129 constituencies concerned by the two rounds of local council elections in Tunisia. The 1,558 candidates for the run-off are spread across 254 local councils out of a total of 279 councils throughout the country. 89.7% of the candidates are men and 10.3% are women. Bouasker added that 20.1% of the candidates are aged under 35, 70.9% are between 36 and 60, and 9% are over 60. The total number of registered voters for the run-off is 4 million 181 thousand 871, 51% of whom are women and 49% men. 33.6% are aged under 35, 47% between 36 and 60 and 19.4% over 60. "Ahead of the run-off, the ISIE fit out 2,037 voting centres in primary schools and 3,675 polling stations to receive voters," said the President of the ISIE. The number of polling centre and polling station staff, he specified, stands at 15,321, divided between 2,037 centre managers, 2,259 deputy centre managers and 11,025 polling station members. Bouasker pointed out that all material and human conditions had been mobilised to ensure the smooth running of these elections, specifying that 254 offices had been set up at local council level to bring services closer to all those involved in the electoral process, in addition to the establishment of a regional operations room for monitoring and supervision with 282 employees, 254 local coordinators and 450 administrative staff. The President of the ISIE recalled that the electoral campaign had began on January 21 and ended on February 02. "To this end, the ISIE has mobilised all human and material resources to make this campaign a success, such as the opening of a single desk to provide information on the various activities at the level of local councils and the setting up of a call centre to assist candidates and all stakeholders, as well as the launch of an website including all the information on candidates (candidates2023.isie.tn)," he stated. Bouaskir underlined that 712 employees had been trained to monitor the electoral campaign in the field, and that 134 employees had monitored the electoral campaign in open spaces and in the written, audiovisual and electronic media, in addition to 109 legal officers and local coordinators. A further 1,200 staff are handling the logistics and results collection. Bouasker pointed out that the ISIE had coordinated with the national army and security forces to ensure the secure transfer of electoral material. Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse
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