There are fewer than 50 days left before Tunisians head to the polls in the country's second elections since the 2011 Revolution, and its first combined legislative and presidential elections. In quick succession, voters will be asked to elect a parliament on 26 October and then select the next president on 23 November. A run-off will be held for the presidential race unless one of the candidates secures more than half the votes in the first round. In all, 1,317 party lists are competing for parliamentary seats, 191 of them having been already disqualified. Voters outside the country will be allowed to vote, and six constituencies have been set aside for expatriate voters. Candidates in the presidential elections are due to file applications from 8 to 22 September. Nearly 40 figures have expressed interest in the post, including associates of the ousted former president Zein Al-Abidine Ben Ali. Former government member Mustafa Ben Jafar, former prime minister Beji Caid Al-Sebsi, interim president Moncef Marzouki, and economist Kamal Nabli are all seen as leading candidates. Munzir Zenadi and former minister Abderrahim Zouari, former aides to Ben Ali, have also said they plan to to run. Independents. including journalist Ziyad Hani and Judge Kalthoum Kannou, will also be competing in the elections. Most of Tunisia's political parties have announced presidential candidates. The Islamist Ennahda Movement is not fielding a candidate for the country's top job, saying that it wants to see a “consensual” president, someone who wins a majority of the votes, fill the office. However, Ennahda's extensive powerbase may be enough to ensure that it has the final say on the outcome of the race. Tunisian Independent Elections Commission chief Mohamed Chafik Sarsar said last week that the elections were proceeding on schedule and the committee was ironing out any kinks in the system. The process began earlier this year with the formation of the commission, a permanent body that will also organise future elections and referendums. An Elections Law was passed on 26 May. However, registering voters has posed difficulties, as many people seem to be uninterested in the upcoming elections. During the first week of registration, only some 2,000 people had registered with the commission, though numbers rose following an attack on army forces in Chaambi that left 15 soldiers killed. It seems that many Tunisians have concluded that the best way to achieve stability is to support a democratic and civil state by participating in the elections. Since then nearly 90,000 voters have registered, with the total standing at 5.2 million, up one million since 2011. Observers, however, note that this figure is still low, since there are some eight million people of voting age in Tunisia. The commission has attributed the low registration to the disappointment of voters in reforms carried out during the country's transitional phase. However, it has also said that nearly 3.5 million people have registered using mobile phones, a good sign for the elections themselves, observers say. Nevertheless, other observers have noted that many Tunisians lack enthusiasm for the elections because of what they see as an absence of new ideas or programmes from the country's political parties. A certain segment of the population even hankers for the quieter times of Ben Ali. Meanwhile, security remains a main concern. The country's security forces claims to have uncovered terrorist plots and say large numbers of security personnel will be deployed throughout the elections period.
