September 8 general elections, Here are the new changes

Many changes have been tabled in terms of the organic laws related to the governing of the electoral system as well as candidatures’ rules, that will be applied for the upcoming September 8 elections.

New rules have been set for councils of prefectures and provinces in order to improve female representation as well as other changes related to the election of members in municipal councils.

Organic law no.06.21, which is amending and supplementing organic law no.59.11 related to the election of members of the councils or communes, has set up a legislative mechanism in order to guarantee the representation of women in these councils.

Article 110 of the organic law specifies that the list of candidates be made up of two parts, the first part is dedicated exclusively to women’s candidatures, without impacting the right of these women to be candidates for the account seats reserved for the first part of the list.

In the second part of article 110, the number of seats allocated can be calculated according to the third of the seats to be occupied at the level of the council of the prefecture of the province; the number can be increased, if necessary, to the highest number.

The law provides for a review of the number of local authorities whose members are elected by list vote, also by taking into account the nature of the relationship between voters and candidates of the municipalities concerned, while increasing the population required to 50,000 people to implement the voting model.

In order to moralize the municipal electoral mandate, the law provides in its article 153, that no member of a municipal council who has resigned may stand as a candidate for the same council during the same mandate.

This provision will give the necessary credibility to the municipal mandate and ensure respect for its noble purpose, far from any maneuver.

The law also adopted the proposed amendments for the Chambers of Representatives and Councilors, including the moralization of electoral campaigns and the assurance of their transparency, the generalization of the condition of obtaining a minimum number of votes to give representative legitimacy to elected officials, and the approvement of candidate’s list.