Over 6,000 mainly foreign observers will oversee Sunday’s municipal elections in Tunisia, revealed Mohammed al-Talili al-Mansary, the head of the independent higher elections commission.
The European Union has dispatched 90 observers, he revealed, while several Tunisian and foreign rights organization will monitor the voting process.
This will mark the first elections in Tunisia since 2011 when mass protests toppled the regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
All legal and logistic preparations are in place to receive more than 5 million Tunisian voters, Mansary declared. Some 11,000 voting stations in 350 municipalities have been set up and the commission has tasked no less than 44,000 member to oversee the election process.
The defense and interior ministries have deployed some 60,000 security and military forces to ensure the safety of the voting.
Observers expect a high abstention rate in the polls, because the post-revolution authorities have struggled to improve living standards and tackle corruption.
Tunisians who had high hopes after the revolution have been left demoralized in the face of high inflation, stubborn unemployment and arrangements between political parties which have hindered democratic debate at the national level.
According to observers, the two political heavyweights -- the Ennahdha party and the Nidaa Tounes party led by President Beji Caid Essebsi -- are the only ones to have presented lists in all cities, and could win a large proportion of seats.
After being postponed four times, the one-round local elections will begin at 8:00 am (0700 GMT) on Sunday with about 57,000 candidates standing across 350 municipalities.
The vote marks the first tangible step towards decentralization, a move written into Tunisia's post-revolution constitution after regions were marginalized by a hyper-centralized power base under the former regime.
