Tunisia Voter Registration & Voter Confidence Assessment Survey
May 24, 2011, 5:49 p.m.
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="189" caption="The Municipality building in Tunis. Rola Abdul-Latif/IFES."]
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Tunisia, the country that sparked the pro-democracy revolts across the Middle East and North Africa, is currently scheduled to hold elections for Constituent Assembly in July. IFES conducted a nationwide survey in late March and early April to gain insight into the citizenry’s expectations for these elections, the readiness of the electorate, and the general confidence in the elections process.
The data provides powerful indicators of where Tunisians stand before the election. It reveals that while optimism is the predominant emotion, challenges lie ahead. Among the main findings are:
- An overwhelming majority (92%) of respondents said they are likely to vote in the upcoming elections. This is in sharp contrast with voting behavior before the Tunisian revolution. When respondents were asked if they had voted in the October 2009 Parliamentary and Presidential elections, only 28% of respondents reported that they voted versus 71% who did not.
- Eighty-seven percent of respondents said that they expect the election to be completely (36%) or somewhat (51%) free and fair.
- At least 8 out of every 10 Tunisians said they needed more information in each key area: voter registration, participating political parties, candidates and campaigns, where and when to vote, voting procedures and vote counting.
- Less than half (43%) of the surveyed adults correctly identified the upcoming election as a Constituent Assembly election, while 26% gave an incorrect answer and 31% did not know.
IFES contracted Emrhod International, a Tunis-based research organization, to implement the survey. The sample size (1,506 respondents) was designed to represent Tunisia’s adult population, so it was stratified geographically by the 24 governorates of Tunisia. The margin of error is ± 2.53.