Engaging for Progress of Women Voters in Next Round of Presidential Election

 Media Release

Tunis, Tunisia

27 November 2014

Engaging for Progress of Women Voters in the Next Round of the Presidential Election

Gender Election Watch Mission Presents Preliminary Report to ISIE

A delegation of partners led by Head of Mission, Sabra Bano, met on 27 November with Chafik Sarsar, President of ISIE, the Independent Electoral Commission of Tunisia, and female ISIE staff members to present recommendations from the Preliminary Report of the presidential elections of 23 November. “Mr. Sarsar welcomed our mission recommendations and a constructive dialogue took place on better establishing conditions for the participation of women voters. ISIE has done commendable work so far, and we look forward to further interaction to realise progress for women voters in the next round of the presidential election and in future elections”, said Ms. Bano.

A key recommendation in the Preliminary Report was to increase the number of female security personnel at polling stations in order to better assure female voters that they are welcome and safe when casting their vote. Also noted in recommendations was that the turnout of women voters in some rural areas was said by various polling station staff to have been lower because a number of women’s priority was to work in fields harvesting olives on election day. 

Gender Concerns International is encouraged by the willingness of ISIE to engage with the Gender Election Watch observation mission. Our partnership is the largest international election observation mission in Tunisia, having trained and deployed 10 international and 100 domestic female observers to observe the parliamentary and presidential elections from a gender perspective.

Gender Election Watch Tunisia 2014 is a partnership of Gender Concerns International (GCI), The Tunisian League of Human Rights (LTDH), The Tunisian Association of Democratic Women (ATFD), and The Association of Tunisian Women for Research and Development (AFTURD).

Click here to download the Preliminary Report for the Tunisian presidential elections.

For more information contact:

Matt Luna, Mission Outreach and Management: matt@genderconcerns.org

www.genderconcerns.org