By Naomi Ndifon
The Republic of Tunisia held its presidential election on the 6th of October 2024. It was the first election since adopting the new constitution in 2022. Incumbent President Kais Saied secured his second term with 90.7% of the votes in the face of a 28.8% voter turnout and only 2 other contenders: Zouhair Maghzaoui and Ayachi Zammel.
Although 17 candidates filed to contest in the presidential elections, only these 3 were validated by the International High Authority for Elections in Tunisia. The other 14 candidates were disqualified and jailed on grounds of vote buying, defaming the electoral commission, and other offences. There have been several reports on this being a move by President Kais Saied to consolidate his power and secure a second term. His first presidential term, despite his background as a law professor with no prior political experience, quickly became tumultuous and increasingly authoritarian.
After assuming his first term in office in 2019, President Saied staged a coup d’etat in 2021, dissolving the parliament, the Superior Judicial Council and the Prime Minister and taking full control of both the government and the state. In September 2021, three months later, he suspended the 2014 Constitution and, in July 2022, led a referendum on a new constitution expanding Presidential power. The new constitution grants the president priority over other legislative proposals, authorises senior civil and military appointments based on the prime minister’s recommendations, defines Tunisia as part of the Islamic nation committed to the goals of “pure Islam,” guarantees freedoms of publication, protest, and party formation, and upholds equal rights and political representation for women.
As such, the 2024 Presidential elections were marked by heightened tensions leading up to the vote. On election day, there were reports of a shortage of ballot papers and attempts to sway voters' decisions in favour of President Saied.
Women’s Political Participation
Since independence, Tunisia has seen significant advances in women’s rights, bolstered further after the 2011 Revolution. The appointment of Najla Bouden as the country’s first female prime minister in 2021 marked another milestone. Yet despite these gains, gender parity has eroded in recent years.
Women comprised 50.4% of the total number of registered voters in the 2024 polls. There were no female presidential candidates, nor were there any women selected as vice-presidential candidates by the three presidential contenders. Only one woman initially filed for Presidency: Abir Moussi, President of the Free Destourian Party and member of the Assembly of People’s Representatives. However, she did not make it to the final list of running candidates. She had previously run in the 2019 elections, where she got only 4% of the votes. Abir Moussi has been detained following her arrest in 2023 for spreading "false news" after criticising the electoral authority. She filed her candidacy for Presidency while being detained in prison. Two days after filing her candidacy for the 2024 elections, she was convicted by a Tunis Court of First Instance and sentenced to a two-year sentence. Moussi was ultimately excluded from the final list of presidential candidates due to her ongoing convictions and legal restrictions stemming from these charges.
Salma Elloumi Rekik, former Minister of Tourism and first female Head of the Presidential Diwan, was also a candidate alongside Abir Moussi in Tunisia’s 2019 Presidential elections; however, she got less than 1% of the total votes.
According to the AU Mission Observation report, women made up 75% of election officials, 74% of citizen observers and 44% of security officials in the 2024 elections.
In Tunisia’s current lower chamber, the Assembly of People’s Representatives, only 24 out of the 152 parliamentarians are women (15.8%). In the upper chamber, the National Council of Regions and Districts, only 10 of the 77 parliamentarians are women (13%). While Tunisia's 2014 electoral law mandated the alternation of male and female candidates on party lists to ensure gender parity, the new electoral law introduced in 2022 abolished these provisions.
After President Saied dissolved the parliament in 2021, he also dismissed the then Prime Minister Najla Bouden Romdhane, replacing her with Ahmed Hachani. Najla Bouden Romdhane - who assumed office in 2021 - was the first female Prime Minister in Tunisia and in the wider Arab World, appointed by President Saied. An engineer by academic training and profession, she had previously served in executive capacities within Tunisia’s Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research.
Tunisia’s current cabinet includes 24 Ministers and 1 Secretary of state, 7 of whom are women, in addition to the female Secretary General of the Cabinet.Amina Srarfi, Minister of Cultural Affairs;
- Fatma Thabet Chiboub, Minister of Energy, Industry & Mines
- Sihem Boughdiri Nemsia, Minister of Finance
- Leila Jaffel, Minister of Justice
- Sarra Zaafrani Zenzri, Minister of Public Works and Housing
- Asmaa Jaberi, Minister of Women, Children, Elderly & Family
- Aida Hamdi, Secretary of State for International Cooperation
- Sarra Rejeb, Secretary-General of the Cabinet
Legislative, policy, and other reforms on women’s rights
On a broader scope of women’s rights and gender equality, Tunisia has made some strides towards safeguarding the welfare of women and girls. The 2017 Law No. 58 strongly prohibits all forms of violence against women with additional provisions for the protection of survivors. Sexual harassment, rape and female genital mutilation are also criminalised under the 1913 Penal Code. The Labour Code prohibits discrimination between men and women and further prohibits employers from dismissing female workers based on pregnancy.
However, Tunisia remains one of the 2 AU member states yet to sign and ratify the Maputo Protocol.
Challenges to women’s political participation
Women in Tunisian politics face a wide range of challenges that continue to discourage or threaten their full participation. Since the Jasmine Revolution of 2011, Tunisia has been in a prolonged period of transition, and many of the gains made for women’s rights remain fragile. Today, the country is grappling with a deep economic and social crisis, creating an environment in which political backsliding has become more likely.
This rollback is evident in the new electoral law introduced by President Kais Saied in December 2022, which eliminated parity requirements in elected assemblies. As a result, women’s political participation dropped sharply, from 26% to less than 16%, reversing years of progress.
Alongside these structural setbacks, women continue to encounter direct and often personal forms of intimidation. Former parliamentarian and women’s rights advocate Bochra Belhaj Hmida has spoken publicly about experiencing harassment, smear campaigns, and death threats. Gendered disinformation and cyberbullying are widespread, as underscored in the #ShePersisted 2023 study. One stark example occurred in 2022, when a female judge was falsely accused of adultery and subjected to an online defamation campaign. Together, these pressures - political, social, and digital - create a challenging landscape for women seeking to participate fully in Tunisian public life.
Notwithstanding, organisations such as Aswat Nisaa, Tunisian League of Women Voters (LET) have continued to advocate in Tunisian media and for women’s increased political representation and full participation.
Conclusion
Despite a less than 30% voter turnout, incumbent President Kais Saeid emerged as President of the Republic of Tunisia in the October 2024 elections. Only one woman filed for candidacy for President, Abir Moussi, however, she did not make it to the final official list of candidates. Since the implementation of Tunisia's new constitution in 2022 and the subsequent electoral law, provisions for gender parity in candidate lists have been removed. As a result, women now represent only 13.8% of parliamentarians in the upper chamber and 15% in the lower chamber. There is an urgent need for the reenactment of gender quotas in Tunisian law to ensure more balanced and equitable political participation.