Tunisia’s parliament looks deeply fractured after an election on Sunday, with an exit poll showing the moderate Islamist Ennahda in first place with only 17.5% of votes, meaning the coming period of government formation will likely prove long and hard.
Tunisians cast their ballots amid a huge field of contenders for the 217-seat parliament.
The exit poll by Sigma Conseil showed the Heart of Tunisia party of Nabil Karoui, the detained media mogul, in second place with 15.6%. It included Tunisia’s 199 domestic constituencies, but not the 18 overseas ones, and official results are not expected on Sunday.
If confirmed, the result would leave Ennahda, a member of several coalitions since the revolution, needing to join with numerous rivals and independent members of parliament to gain a working majority.
The vote featured more than 16,000 candidates from more than 200 different parties competing to fill the 217-seat unicameral legislature, the Assembly of People’s Representatives.
The election came weeks after Tunisians voted in the first round of a presidential election that garnered much greater public attention. The presidential vote ended inconclusively, forcing a runoff on October 13.
Any government that does emerge will face the same challenges that have bedeviled its predecessors: high unemployment, inflation and public debt, a powerful union that resists change and foreign lenders who demand it.
The parliamentary divisions add to an already febrile political climate after voters last month sent an independent and a media mogul detained on corruption charges through to next week’s second round runoff of a separate presidential election.
