Voter education in democratic transition : the case of Tunisia

Abstract

Following the fall of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali’ authoritarian regime in 2011, the Independent High Authority for the Elections (ISIE - French acronym for Instance Supérieure Indépendante pour les Elections) was created with a mandate do manage all the phases of the electoral process. The ISIE, the new Electoral Management Body (EMB), was entrusted, inter alia, with carrying out voter education campaigns in collaboration with civil society organisations, to increase citizens’ knowledge on the electoral system, the voting rights hence to building trust in the electoral process. Given that the educational mandate of the EMBs is often neglected, the author aims at underlining the significance of voter education in a context of democratic transition such as is Tunisia. Through the analysis of the Tunisian context and the recommendations issued by regional and international organisations working on electoral assistance, the author evaluates effectiveness of the voter education campaigns implemented by the ISIE between 2011 and 2019 and draws basic recommendations for an effective implementation of voter education.