All eyes on turnout as Tunisia votes again after boycott

Tunisians are to vote again in elections for a parliament stripped of its powers, the final pillar of President Kais Saied's remake of politics in the birthplace of the Arab Spring.

The second-round vote comes as the North African country grapples with a grave economic crisis and deep political divisions over Saied's July 2021 power grab.

Some 262 candidates, including just 34 women, are running for 131 seats in an election whose first round last month saw just 11.2 percent of registered voters take part.

That was the lowest turnout of any national vote since the 2011 revolt that overthrew dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and triggered copycat uprisings across the Arab world.

The final round came 18 months after Saied sacked the government and suspended parliament, later moving to seize control of the judiciary and pushing through a constitution last July that gave his office almost unlimited executive power.

As during the first round, most political parties -- which have been sidelined by a system that bans candidates from declaring allegiance to a political grouping -- called for a boycott.

On the streets of Tunis, campaigning has been muted, with few posters on the walls and few well-known candidates.

Tunisians, struggling with inflation of over 10 percent and repeated shortages of basic goods from milk to petrol as well as transport workers' and teachers' strikes, have more urgent priorities than politics.