Equality by lot

Jeune Afrique discusses the mechanism for selecting the members of a newly created second chamber of the Tunisian parliament. There are various details that are not quite clear to me, but the mechanism apparently involves sortition and the creation of arbitrary districts combining interior and coastal areas, an idea which echos the reforms of Cleisthenes.

In Tunisia, a new system, new electoral districting

Announced at the end of September, the new partitioning includes new areas and districts whose representatives will seat at the second chamber of Parliament, created in May 2022. But the logic of the repartitioning, including that of the geography, is perplexing.

Decree 589 of September 21st, 2023 is significant: it sets a configuration which corresponds to the old idea of connecting interior regions with coastal ones.

[These districts will be used] to create the National Council of Regions and Districts, the second chamber of Parliament.

The 72 representatives of the Council will be appointed using a complex method which involves voting and sortition, with each stage structuring the different levels of regional representation.

Filed under: Applications, Elections, Press, Sortition |