[ 2011-10-08 ]

Tunisia may refuse Canadian election observers
TUNIS (AFP) - Tunisia may refuse to accredit
Canadian election observers after Ottawa said it
would not allow expats to vote on its territory in
the first post-revolution polls on October 23, an
official said Saturday.

"If a country refuses Tunisians to vote on its
territory, I cannot see why it would observe our
elections," the head of the ISIE electoral body,
Kamel Jendoubi, told AFP.

"This is not reprisal, it is commonsense," he
added.

Canada said in September it would allow Tunisians
in Canada to cast absentee ballots at Tunisian
embassy premises, but insisted its own territory
could not be viewed as a foreign voting district
or constituency of Tunisia.

Canada applies this policy to all countries,
citing national sovereignty.

Initially set for Saturday morning, the deadline
for observer accreditation was extended by a week
to deal with the large number of applications.

There will be about 5,000 election observers in
total, more than 1,000 of them foreigners, said
Jendoubi.

Michael Gahler, head of the European Union
observer mission in Tunisia, declined to comment
on the row, saying it was a matter for the two
countries.

He said three of the team of 120 were to have been
Canadian, adding: "We are ready to replace them".

The Carter Center, a nongovernmental organisation
founded by former US president and Nobel laureate
Jimmy Carter to advance human rights, had six
Canadians on a list of 50 observers for Tunisia.

"If this matter is not resolved, we will have to
replace them," said Sabina Vigani, director of the
centre's Tunis bureau.

Talks between Tunis and Ottawa are continuing,
said Jendoubi.

Source - AFP

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