Tunisia is the birthplace of the Arab Spring. So why are so many Tunisians uninterested in voting?

TUNIS, Tunisia — Walking along the historic Habib Bourguiba Avenue, named for Tunisia’s first president after independence, it’s hard to tell there’s a political campaign going on. No faces of candidates stare down at passersby from campaign posters. No one hands out flyers or hangs party flags.

A new electoral law means that campaign budgets for national elections on Sunday are prohibitively small and party posters can only be displayed in designated areas. But they would likely be wasting their money anyway, because many Tunisians who went to the polls three years ago, after 30 years under autocrat Zine Abedine Ben Ali, say they’re not interested in voting this time around.

“We don’t expect anything from these elections,” said Chihi Hatem, 37, who works in a hotel restaurant. “Last time I voted for the first time in my life and there was no change. On the contrary, now we have terrorism and the economy got worse.”

Many across the country share his views. Sunday's election is being viewed as a test of the country's transition to democracy, but a sense of apathy hangs in the air.

Among those who will head to the polls, the vote will likely be split between Ennahdha, the moderate Islamist party that swept the parliamentary elections in 2011, and Nida Tounes, a party headed by a former parliament speaker from Ben Ali’s parliament which is made up of secularists, leftists and former members of the Ben Ali regime.

While there are a few smaller parties to choose from, the choice between the Islamists and the old regime has left many people disenchanted with the political process.

A moderating influence 

Some are still paying attention, however. On Friday evening, several thousand people gathered at Habib Bourguiba Avenue at a rally in support of Ennahdha. 

About a third of those assembled at Friday's rally were women. All sang along to the national anthem and chanted “the people want Ennahdha again,” a phrase that rhymes in Arabic, while other songs memorialized the martyrs from Tunisia’s 2011 Jasmine Revolution.

Bijaoui Fawzia, a 45-year-old French teacher, said she finally got a job after 17 years of unemployment when Ennahdha came to power.

"My husband was one of the Ennahdha political prisoners,” she said, which meant she was unable to find a job under the old regime. “They should have done a better job,” she says of Ennahdha’s two years in office.

In September last year, wary after the ouster of the Muslim Brotherhood — its sister organization in neighboring Egypt — Ennahdha surrendered key positions to a technocratic government. But it remains the strongest political entity in the country.

Since it relinquished power, Ennahdha has taken steps to appear more moderate and the party’s hard-line figures such as Habib Ellouze, who called a member of the opposition an unbeliever and called for jihad in Syria, have receded into the background for this round of campaigning.

Neziha, 72, a retired seamstress who declined to give her full name, identified herself as a lifelong “Nahdhaweya” — a Nahdha supporter.

“I support Nahdha because I’m a Muslim Tunisian and because they are honest, they are not thieves,” she said.

Deteriorating security

The elections begin against a backdrop of heightened rhetoric from the government about the increased security threat. Tunisians represent the largest number of foreign fighters in Syria — more than 3,000 fighters have gone since 2011. Closer to home, dozens of Tunisian security forces have been killed in recent months in clashes with militants on the border with Algeria and two secular politicians were assassinated in 2013.

The secularists say the burgeoning extremist threat is Ennahdha’s fault. They accuse the Islamist party of being soft on Tunisia’s Salafists and failing to investigate attacks on cafes, bars and cultural events they deemed un-Islamic. 

Members of the party admit that they made mistakes — Said Ferjani, an Ennahdha leader told the New York Times that the party “did not get the mix right” in overestimating their ability to convert young extremists while not focusing enough on security.

But for many people, the factors that drove the discontent that sparked the uprisings that toppled Ben Ali, among them unemployment and police brutality, remain unaddressed and they have little faith that politicians will help.

After the elections, forming a government that reconciles the Islamist and secularist political forces will be the next challenge.

“The projects of Nida Tounes and Ennahdha are diametrically opposed on social and economic issues…our goal is not to make a coalition [with them],” said Said Aidi, a Nida Tounes member who is running in Tunis.

Back at the rally, the crowd seems hopeful. Little boys and girls wrapped in Ennahdha flags sit atop their parents’ shoulders as crowds cheer for a safe and prosperous Tunisia.