Tunisia - The final total turnout in the run-off local council elections was 12.53%, president of the Independent High Electoral Commission (ISIE), Farouk Bouasker, announced on Monday evening.

Speaking at a press conference held by the ISIE to present the preliminary results of the run-off local elections, Bouaskar added that the commission's board met on Monday and validated these results. It also took a number of decisions, including the cancellation of the results of two candidates, he added.

The two cases referred to by the President of the ISIE concern the constituency of Touza in Ksibet El Meiouni, governorate of Monastir, where a candidate filed a complaint against another candidate for allegedly holding a second nationality.

After examining these allegations, the ISIE decided to uphold the complaint and therefore declared the results of the bi-national candidate to be totally null and void.

The second case of total annulment concerns a candidate in the Menzel Chaker constituency in Sfax, who committed a number of electoral offences, including distributing money to voters and violating the electoral silence on the eve of polling day.

According to the ISIE, more than 523,945 voters went to the polls in this round of local elections.

A total of 779 candidates were elected, including 72 women.

TheISIE also reported that 139 candidates under the age of 36 won seats, while 16 of the total number of winners in this round were over the age of 60.

Statistics show that the regional authorities of Sidi Bouzid, Zaghouan and Kasserine had recorded the highest turnout in these elections.

Bouasker said the ISIE registered the death of a candidate in the run-off local elections in Oued Zargua, Beja, which, according to the electoral code, automatically confirmed the victory of his rival in the same constituency.

At this press conference, members of the ISIE took turns to announce the results for each of the constituencies affected by the run-off local elections.

The announcement of the final results of the run-off local elections will take place on 17 March 2024, after all challenges to the Administrative Court provided for in the Electoral Code have been exhausted.

In the first round of the local elections, held on December 2023, 1,348 local council members were elected from a total of 6,177 candidates in 2,155 electoral districts.

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