Electoral controversies in Tunisia take more sinister form

• Administrative Court will no longer have jurisdiction over electoral disputes
• Urgent bill to amend electoral law was submitted on Friday and will likely pass easily
• Amendments come 2 weeks ahead of presidential elections which become even less legitimate

Amid concerns that the results of the Oct 6 presidential elections may be invalidated by the Administrative Court after the electoral commission (ISIE) refused to reinstate three presidential candidates to the race as ruled by the Administrative Court, a number of deputies initiated urgent legislative changes to ensure that this scenario does not occur.

In urgent amendments to the electoral law?submitted?by 34 members of parliament on Friday (Sep 20), the Administrative Court will be stripped from its powers to adjudicate on appeals of the election results. In Article 146 and 147 of the law adopted in 2014, the election results are proclaimed as final after all the appeals have been settled by the plenary assembly of the Administrative Court. The proposed amendments will relieve the Administrative Court from this function and will place it instead with the Court of Appeals and the Court of Cassation. This change is proposed only two weeks ahead of the elections and, even more disturbingly, it contains a provision that the change of the appeals procedure will be in force only for the presidential elections in 2024.

Moreover, the deputies also propose that candidates must appeal any decisions of the electoral commission (ISIE) before the Tunis Court of Appeals within a period not exceeding 48 hours after the proclamation of the results. Further, the judgements of the Court of Appeals can be challenged at the Court of Cassation. The amendments place the jurisdiction of electoral disputes out of the hands of the administrative court and into the hands of the ordinary justice system, which has been purged by president Kasi Saied in 2022 and is now seen as being under his control.

In our view, there is no doubt that the amendments would pass in parliament which has been elected with a turnout of 11% after Saied's constitutional referendum. It would not be a surprise if the president decided to simply suspend the Administrative Court just as he suspended in 2022 the Supreme Judicial Council, which served as the main guarantor of judicial independence since Tunisia's 2011 revolution. At the time, despite protests and demonstrations, Saied fired 57 judges, accusing them of corruption and protecting terrorists. All these developments serve to support the conclusion that the one of two presidential candidates allowed to run against Saied in the poll, who is not imprisoned, stands very little chances of success in these questionable elections.