Arab Press

بالشعب و للشعب
Friday, Apr 03, 2026

Tunisia civil society groups raise questions over referendum data

Tunisia civil society groups raise questions over referendum data

Amid complaints over data management, election authority maintains the results of constitutional referendum are valid.

More than a week after Tunisians backed a new constitution proposed by President Kais Saied, civil society groups are demanding the election authority publish the raw vote data to see if the process was valid – and some are even asking for a recount.

According to the Tunisian Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE), some 2.93 million voters, of the 9.2 million registered, took part in the July 25 vote, with 92 percent of those participating voting “Yes”.

The low turnout of 31 percent came amid a boycott campaign from the opposition, which says the new constitution could lead Tunisia back to one-man rule, an allegation Saied denies.

There was no minimum level of participation set for the referendum, so the constitution, which will change Tunisia from its current hybrid parliamentary democracy to one where the president has sweeping powers, will be adopted.

While civil society observers do not dispute the winning “Yes” vote, nor do they accuse the ISIE of fraud, they have expressed concerns about vote data management. They want polling station data to be published in an easily accessible format and point out serious errors in some governorate results published on the day after the referendum, which were rectified by the ISIE on August 2.

Meanwhile, “No” campaign leaders and the political party Afek Tounes are demanding the whole result be cancelled, claiming the referendum process was unconstitutional and that the “No” campaign was blocked from holding campaign events.




Anti-corruption organisation I Watch accused ISIE’s staff of “being incompetent and lacking integrity”.

Slim Bouzid, of the independent vote observation association Mourakiboun, said I Watch had asked for a recount, but his organisation had requested “the detailed data in spreadsheet, so that we can verify whether these were, in fact, errors or something else,” said Bouzid, shying away from defining what he was hinting at, when pressed by Al Jazeera.

But ISIE President Farouk Bouasker has hit back at those who, he said, were accusing the authority of fraud and of falsifying the election results, pledging legal action against them.

Bouasker also told a news conference on Tuesday that the three legal cases filed against ISIE did not concern the results. “This shows the referendum results are sound,” he said in Tunis.

The complaints against ISIE will be heard on Friday.




Since the writing of Tunisia’s constitution in 2014, the independent election authority has successfully organised three general elections and received praise from observers for running free and fair polls in a competent manner.

But in May, Saied replaced the ISIE’s executive committee, giving the newly reformed body just two months to organise the referendum, including recruiting and training 80,000 new polling station workers.

“We don’t believe that ISIE is a genuinely independent authority any more,” I Watch executive bureau member, Mouhoub Garoui, told Al Jazeera.

Bouzid said the whole referendum process was problematic, including the handling of personal data without consent.

Before the vote, ISIE hailed the registration of some 2.26 million new voters, but Bouzid said “the voluntary recruiting of new voters failed due to lack of equipment and poor strategy, so [ISIE] switched to automatic registration”.

According to Bouzid, “the ideal number of voters per polling station” to ensure an error-free count is 600. But before the referendum, the number of polling stations was cut from 14,700 to 11,762, which led to a maximum of 1,000 voters registered for each centre, which Bouzid said could have led to vote-counting errors.

Meanwhile, political scientist Monica Marks, assistant professor of Arabic Cross Roads Studies at New York University Abu Dhabi, who has been interviewing all parties involved in the referendum process, also pointed out that the ISIE had not released the vote data in a file format that observers could access and analyse.

“We do not have any independent, fully transparent evidence to verify ISIE’s figures,” Marks said.

When contacted by Al Jazeera, ISIE maintained that no errors were made in the counting of the ballots.




The referendum also took place with fewer observers than in previous electoral processes. Bouzid said that in the past, ISIE would authorise some 15,000 independent observers – but this time there were just “6,000 observer accreditations, of which half were accredited to Mourakiboun”.

Mrabti Said, an observer from the Chahed Observatory for Election Monitoring, told Al Jazeera that he and his colleagues had been refused entry to polling stations because they had not been issued the correct accreditation. “ISIE didn’t buy enough cards to print all the passes requested by independent and international observers,” he said.

Said, who had observed every election since the 2011 revolution with the Chahed organisation, said he was shocked by incidents of police heavy-handedness. “Police agents attacked one of our observers … [in the] suburb of Djebel Jelloud. [They] arrested and took him to the police station there.”

Marks added: “We do not have and we never will have a full list of violations in this referendum, because observers were only present in a small fraction of locations and because ISIE workers were so haphazardly recruited and trained.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

Arab Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Saudi Film Festival Rescheduled to Summer as Regional Tensions Continue
Saudi Arabia Reports Forty Two Point Six Billion Dollars in Foreign Tourist Spending in 2025
Saudi Crown Prince and Russian President Hold Strategic Call on Escalating Regional Crisis
Saudi Arabia Advances Rail Network as Strategic Alternative to Strait of Hormuz Shipping Route
Ruanyun Edai Launches Saudi Arabia Hub With Forecast of Ten Percent Revenue Growth
Greek Defence Minister Visits Troops in Saudi Arabia Following Successful Missile Interception
Saudi Arabia Expands Global Strategy With Focus on African Critical Minerals
SpaceX Explores Potential Five Billion Dollar Investment From Saudi Fund Ahead of Possible IPO
US Central Command Dismisses Iranian Claim of Mass Casualties Among American Personnel in Saudi Arabia
Co-Diagnostics to Establish Molecular Diagnostics Facility in Saudi Arabia Through Joint Venture
Trump Engages Saudi Crown Prince in Talks on Potential Iran Ceasefire
Saudi Arabia’s Sadara Suspends Operations as Supply Chain Disruptions Intensify
Saudi Arabia Accelerates Energy Shift by Trading Oil Revenues for Battery Investments
Saudi Arabia Introduces Flexible Options for Expired Visas Amid Regional Disruptions
Online Narratives Surge as Iran–US Tensions Spill Into Digital Arena Following Trump Remarks
Saudi Arabia Urges Trump to Seize Strategic Moment as UAE Weighs Ground Deployment
Saudi Arabia Redirects Nearly One Million Barrels of Oil Daily Away from Strait of Hormuz
Saudi Arabia Carries Out Execution of Businessman Linked to 2011 Qatif Unrest
Ukraine–Saudi Defense Pact Signals Rising Demand for Battlefield Expertise
Saudi Arabia Balances Diplomacy and Defense Preparedness Amid Iran Conflict
Iran Conflict Reshapes Strategic Calculations in U.S.-Saudi Relations
Saudi Arabia Voices Caution as Trump’s Assertive War Strategy Reshapes Regional Dynamics
Saudi Arabia Updates Travel Advisory as Regional Conflict Intensifies
Saudi Arabia’s Sadara Suspends Petrochemical Production as Conflict Disrupts Operations
Iran Urges Saudi Arabia to Remove US Forces Amid Escalating Regional Tensions
Gulf Allies Urge Trump to Sustain Campaign Until Iran Is Fully Defeated
Saudi Arabia Unveils Strategic Rail Freight Corridors Connecting Gulf Ports to Jordan
Saudi Arabia Intercepts Drones and Ballistic Missiles in Major Defensive Operation
Houthi Escalation Opens New Front in Expanding Iran-Linked Conflict
Major Saudi Chemical Plant Halts Operations Amid Regional Conflict Disruptions
Strike on US Radar Aircraft in Saudi Arabia Signals Escalating Threat Capabilities
US Citizens in Saudi Arabia Advised to Shelter Indoors Amid Rising Regional Tensions
How Britain’s Prime Minister Controls U.S. Bomber Access in Escalating Iran Conflict
Saudi Arabia Urges Trump to Lead Strategic Reset in Middle East as UAE Weighs Ground Role
Reed Smith Expands Saudi Presence with Senior Corporate Appointments
Trump Announces Approval of F-35 Fighter Jet Sale to Saudi Arabia
BBC Faces Scrutiny Over Allegations of Paid Content Linked to Saudi Arabia
Ukraine Secures Defense Agreements with Qatar and Saudi Arabia as UAE Talks Advance
Oil Prices Surge as Saudi Arabia Adjusts Supply Amid Escalating Iran Tensions
Saudi Arabia Condemns Attacks on Kurdistan Leaders and Reaffirms Backing for Iraq’s Stability
Saudi Arabia Weighs Strategic Interests as Iran Conflict Raises Regional Stakes
Severe Thunderstorms Sweep Across UAE and Saudi Arabia Bringing Heavy Rainfall
Trump’s Strategic Alignment with Saudi Arabia Reflects Expanding Economic and Diplomatic Synergy
Saudi Arabia Strongly Condemns Attacks on Presidential Residences in Hawler
Saudi Stocks Edge Lower as Tadawul Index Closes Slightly Down
Houthis Enter Expanding Iran Conflict as US Deploys Additional Troops
Iran Seeks Assurances for Regional Allies as Saudi Arabia Presses for Firm Security Guarantees
Iranian Strike Reportedly Destroys $270 Million US E-3 Sentry Aircraft at Saudi Air Base
Iranian Strike on Saudi Base Leaves Ten American Personnel Injured
Ukraine Claims Russia Shared Satellite Intelligence with Iran Ahead of Saudi Base Strike
×