The European Union has sent a delegation of electoral observers to Tunisia’s upcoming municipal elections, the first of their kind in over seven years following the mass popular uprising that ousted the North African country’s authoritarian president.
The unique nature of these elections has brought them under the watchful eye of Fabio Massimo Castaldo, head of the EU election observation mission (EUEOM) in Tunisia, who sat down with EFE for an exclusive interview Sunday, a week before voting is to get underway in the historic ballot.
“It’s a unique mission because the EU normally doesn’t observe local elections,” he explained. “It is the second time we have made an exception and it’s down to the importance of Tunisia and the democratic transition it’s seen since 2011.”
Following on from that point, Castaldo said these elections represent the process of decentralization and are to be a fundamental step in the democratic process for Tunisia, the country that sparked the 2011 regional protest movement and which has avoided the counter-revolutionary backlash seen in all other so-called Arab Spring states.
EU observers arrived in Tunisia a week before voting is to begin May 6, at the request of the Tunisian government and the country’s Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE).
The mission’s principal objectives, as with its previous two visits to Tunisia during the democratic transition, are to monitor the electoral process and determine if it meets international standards.
The elections not only represent a renewal of political power on the municipal level for the first time since the regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, but will also serve as a prelude to legislative and presidential elections scheduled for 2019.
Police officers and soldiers were able to cast their votes for the first time ever, and did so in an early polling day on Sunday.
“It’s too soon to make a comparison (with previous occasions), most of all because it’s dealing with completely different elections: the first was that of the Constituent Assembly (created to devise a new constitution) and the second was for the parliamentary and presidential elections,” Castaldo cautioned.
The EU mission chief added that the municipal elections pose a new challenge not only for Tunisia but also for the EU mission, as there are to be as many as 53,000 candidates, parties, coalitions and independents standing in the vote.
The investment of local powers, a structure that has since been written into law, is to see the nation move away from the old system of hyper-centralized politics, he explained.
Castaldo, vice-president of the European Parliament and a member of Italy’s Five Star Movement, said he was optimistic about the elections but emphasized that Tunisia’s often difficult history could not be forgotten.
“We know that political transitions take their time. Tunisia has witnessed a very positive process in a complex geopolitical environment in North Africa, particularly with the situation in Libya,” he said.
He added that Libya, which shares a border with Tunisia, had become a failed state and was a victim of chaos and a civil war following the United States-led military intervention in 2011 to overthrow Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
Castaldo has a great deal of experience in the region and serves as a member of several organizations such as the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Delegation for relations with the Maghreb countries.
On election day, Castaldo’s electoral mission is to be bolstered by delegations from the European Parliament and European diplomats based in the country, which are to make their findings public two days after the voting process.
TunisianMonitorOnline (Latin Amercian Herald Tribune)
