The Supreme Elections Commission announced that the voter turnout in the second round of the parliamentary elections that took place on Sunday, January 29, 2023, was 11.4%, according to the final figures.

President Kais Saied said during his meeting with Prime Minister Naglaa Boudin at the government palace, on Monday evening that "about 90% did not participate in the vote because the parliament no longer means anything to them".

He wondered, "Why did the Tunisians refuse to participate in the elections, despite the change in the voting method?". Before answering himself, "Because the last ten years have made parliament an institution that has tampered with the state, and what happened in the first and second rounds of the parliamentary elections is a reaction to that."

We in the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Tunisia, in the face of the political fallacies reported during President Kais Saied’s explanation of the Tunisian people’s reluctance to participate in the legislative elections, state the following:

First: It is clear that President Kais Saeed wants, through this statement, to say that he and his presidential system or the “base structure” that he calls for have no responsibility for the people’s reluctance to participate in the elections. Rather, the reluctance falls within the context of people's hatred of the parliamentary system.

The truth is that the people of Tunisia have hated the man-made system as a whole and demanded, in their revolution, its overthrow and they became aware that these elections cannot bring change, but rather they are a tool to stabilize the system, and that they only bring employees for the Western circles, and that their boycott of the referendum on the constitution and their reluctance today to participate in the legislative elections represents a strong blow to colonialism and its lackeys.

The reluctance is not only a reluctance to the Parliament, but rather an official boycott by the Tunisians to the entire system.

Second: We really affirm that the elections in the current system will only lead to prolonging the life of this system, and the issue of changing the electoral law promoted by the president, or the issue of switching from a parliamentary system to a presidential system, will not bring any real change at all, because the roots of our problems are the existing secular regimes themselves, regardless of their colors and forms, and regardless of the ruler. As long as these failed regimes remain, our problems will remain and get worse.

Third: In the face of the inability of the political class, rulers and opposition, to find solutions to the crises afflicting Tunisia and its people, it becomes clear that President Kais Saied seeks to stabilize his rule and not solve the problems of the people. The farce of the legislative elections is his response to the Western powers to get out of the state of exception by establishing a new parliament, which allows him to preserve the interests of the West and moves forward in implementing his government’s commitments to the International Monetary Fund, and it won’t harm him when things get tough by dismissing a minister or two or even ten ministers and appointing others, for they do not even have executive powers in isolation from the orientations of the regime that is subdued by the policies of the plundering foreign circles. The usurious borrowing policy soon returns with bigger crises than its predecessors, for which people pay the price with their food, dignity and the lives of their children, as long as the solutions are miraculous and deceptive and do not direct to the root of the problem.

Fourth: Under the Islamic political system, the Khilafah (Caliphate), which will make a real change for the people:

-     The elections will be fair and meaningful. In the shade of the Khilafah state, the rule belongs to Allah. Therefore, there will be no room for legislation in favor of any beneficiary, let alone colonialism and its agents.

-     Unlike democracy, power rests with the people who are truly able to express the will of their constituents and represent them through elections.

-     Sovereignty belongs to the law and the authority of the Ummah, as it pledges allegiance to the ruler to rule in accordance with Islamic law.

-     The Sharia clearly mandates that the people be empowered to choose the ruler through an electoral process.

-     The Qadi al-Mathalim (Grievances Judge) can dismiss any ruler if it is proved that he is unfair or in violation of the constitution, and he is empowered to hear any complaint filed by people against any person from the state apparatus, regardless of their race or religion.

Thus, the elections and the electoral process under the Khilafah system will achieve justice, stability and harmony in society.

Allah Almighty says:

[إِنِ الْحُكْمُ إِلَّا لِلَّهِ أَمَرَ أَلَّا تَعْبُدُوا إِلَّا إِيَّاهُ ذَٰلِكَ الدِّينُ الْقَيِّمُ وَلَكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ]

“It is only Allah Who decides. He has commanded that you worship none but Him. That is the upright faith, but most people do not know.” [Yusuf 12:40].

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
in Wilayah Tunisia