In the framework of the advocacy campaign ‘Women should hold half of the municipal council’s seats!’ which is leading Mouwatinet Association (Sfax, Tunisia) in favor of women’s political participation in local governance. The initiative is part of the CSO WINS project: ‘Capacity-building in the Southern Mediterranean to open policy dialogue and monitoring for women in society’.

In addition to the activities from their outreach and mobilization program, the association organized a colloquium on May 24th 2017: ‘Municipal elections and worrying about constitutional requirements’ application concerning local power’, in partnership with components of civil society: CORAC collective, the Mourakiboun Network and the Doctoral School of the Faculty of Law of Sfax.

Indeed, the upcoming municipal elections in Tunisia, officially set for 17th December 2017, are particularly threatened. The draft of the ‘Code of Local Authorities’, the founding document of the basis of the decentralization and of the participatory local democracy, prepared in accordance with the principles of the New Constitution, may not be adopted by the ARP (Assembly of People’s Representatives) before the elections. However, the electoral law provides, in this case, the application of the ancient law from 1975. This resource re-establishes again a centralizing power which was widely disputed by the revolution on 14th January 2011. This would cause serious implications on the future of the democratic transition in Tunisia and constitutes a real and imminent danger for public order.

The colloquium on 24th May seems to have been successful for raising awareness among our friends and fellow citizens about the need of the ARP to adopt the proposed draft of the ‘Code of Local Authorities’ on the occasion of the next municipal elections in order to preserve the New Tunisia’s Constitution.

That is how Mouwatinet is preparing for mobilizing the Associations’ collective which work for the participatory local democracy, in order to lobby the Assembly of People’s Reprentatives for finding solutions in the framework of the democratic transition process in Tunisia.