Tunisia-04/11/2021

Translated By: WissalKhlifi.

Following president Kais Said’s announcement of the exceptional measures of 25^th July 2021, Having spoken of his intention to conduct a national dialogue hinting at changing the political system in Tunisia, The International Centre for Strategic Security and Military Studies conducted an opinion survey on its website, from October 25^th, 2021 to November 02^nd 2021, The number of participants in the inquiry was 13,490, the results are as shown in the graphs and analysis down below.

The question that poses

The National dialogue is now a topic that dominates Tunisia’s political scene, following the President’s announcement, to move towards a national dialogue involving the youth with the exception of those who rejected the 25^th July resolutions and those who had corruption tarnishing their names over the past decade.

The dialogue involves the participation of Tunisians in the political construction phase by enabling them to bring forth proposals and come up with ideas that will enrich the next phase in various fields, primarily social, economic and political issues, through virtual platforms.

The national dialogue declared by President Said on September 02^nd 2021, focuses on the participation of youth groups, excluding the parties held accountable for the country’s deteriorated conditions over the past 10 years.

The dialogue displays different ideas and perceptions about the future of the country through virtual platforms. On October 19^th, the president instructed the Ministry of Communication Technology to provide virtual communication means all throughout the country, so that Tunisian people could participate in the decision-making of their own destiny and that of the country, especially youth groups.

President Kais Said pointed out that this dialogue was a referendum where all people’s proposals and aspirations were well heard.

Holding a national dialogue with the youth of the country is the first step towards the direct consecration of democracy in Tunisia without adopting any mediation strategy or leaving it to the parties that usually stem from their narrow partisan interests and agendas, to dominate the decision-making and different policies, according to their standards, claiming that this reflects the aspirations of Tunisian people.

Therefore, president Kais Said has paid particular attention to the youth groups in the upcoming national dialogue, believing in the potential of young people and their ability in making changes and in building.

Furthermore, some political parties have expressed their disapproval of a dialogue limited to Tunisian youth groups, calling for the need of involving the parties.
The question that surfaces is how are proposals for reform put forward by those who were mainly the cause of multiple crises?

And whether or not the country had made any gains over the past decade as a result of the talks undertaken by the parties so that they could be replicated by the same participants after July 25^th?
Opinion survey

In this context, the survey carried out by the Center targets the supporters and opposers of the involvement of political parties in the national dialogue, in addition to the repeal or amendment of the Constitution and the revision of the electoral law.

The results showed that 69% of votes were in favor of the national dialogue, while only 31% were not.
68% of votes supported a national dialogue limited to young people without the participation of political parties belonging to the political system prior to July 25^th, while only 32% votes showed support for the participation of political parties.

While 62% of voters felt that the political system should be reviewed ,38% refused to change it.
As for the electoral law, 65% of participants voted in favor of its revision, while 35% stood against that.

63% voters confirmed that they agreed to the amendment of the Constitution, while the proportion of those calling for its abolition was 37%.

In that context, it could be concluded that most of the participants in the survey were in favor of holding the national dialogue without the participation of political parties, reviewing the political system adopted over the past 10 years, and that there was a need to review the electoral law, which had contributed to the dominance and trivialization of parties, and finally to amend the Tunisian Constitution.