STORY: In Tunisia, not even one in ten voters took part in the parliamentary elections. The turnout was 8.8 percent, the election commission said after the polling stations closed on Saturday. As a result, the restructuring of the state being pursued by President Kais Saied is finding little support among the population. As late as Saturday morning, Saied appealed to the Tunisians to vote. 40 percent of those entitled to vote took part in the penultimate parliamentary election in 2019. The opposition united in the rescue front called on Saied to resign from office and on the population to protest and sit-in. Most parties had called for a boycott of the election. They accuse Saied of a coup and the intention to transform Tunisia into an authoritarian country. The 64-year-old suspended parliament last year and dissolved it completely in March 2022. In 2021 he also dismissed the government and has been governing himself by decree ever since.