Country name:
conventional long form:
Republic of Tunisia
conventional short form:
Tunisia
local long form:
Al Jumhuriyah at Tunisiyah
local short form:
Tunis
etymology:
the country name derives from the capital city of Tunis
Government type:
parliamentary republic
Capital:
name:
Tunis
geographic coordinates:
36 48 N, 10 11 E
time difference:
UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)
Administrative divisions:
24 governorates (wilayat, singular - wilayah); Beja (Bajah), Ben Arous (Bin 'Arus), Bizerte (Banzart), Gabes (Qabis), Gafsa (Qafsah), Jendouba (Jundubah), Kairouan (Al Qayrawan), Kasserine (Al Qasrayn), Kebili (Qibili), Kef (Al Kaf), L'Ariana (Aryanah), Mahdia (Al Mahdiyah), Manouba (Manubah), Medenine (Madanin), Monastir (Al Munastir), Nabeul (Nabul), Sfax (Safaqis), Sidi Bouzid (Sidi Bu Zayd), Siliana (Silyanah), Sousse (Susah), Tataouine (Tatawin), Tozeur (Tawzar), Tunis, Zaghouan (Zaghwan)
Independence:
20 March 1956 (from France)
National holiday:
Independence Day, 20 March (1956)Revolution and Youth Day, 14 January (2011)
Constitution:
history:
several previous; latest approved by Constituent Assembly 26 January 2014, signed by the president, prime minister, and Constituent Assembly speaker 27 January 2014
(2017)
amendments:
proposed by the president of the republic or by one-third of members of the Assembly of the Representatives of the People; following review by the Constitutional Court, approval to proceed requires an absolute majority vote by the Assembly and final passage requires a two-thirds majority vote by the Assembly; the president can opt to submit an amendment to a referendum, which requires an absolute majority of votes cast for passage
(2017)
Legal system:
mixed legal system of civil law, based on the French civil code and Islamic law; some judicial review of legislative acts in the Supreme Court in joint session
International law organization participation:
has not submitted an ICJ jurisdiction declaration; accepts ICCt jurisdiction
Citizenship:
citizenship by birth:
no
citizenship by descent only:
at least one parent must be a citizen of Tunisia
dual citizenship recognized:
yes
residency requirement for naturalization:
5 years
Suffrage:
18 years of age; universal except for active government security forces (including the police and the military), people with mental disabilities, people who have served more than three months in prison (criminal cases only), and people given a suspended sentence of more than six months
[see also: Suffrage country ranks ]
Executive branch:
chief of state:
President Beji CAID ESSEBSI (since 31 December 2014)
head of government:
Prime Minister Youssef CHAHED (since 27 August 2016)
cabinet:
selected by the prime minister and approved by the Assembly of the Representatives of the People
elections/appointments:
president directly elected by absolute majority popular vote in 2 rounds if needed for a 5-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held on 23 November with a runoff on 21 December 2014 (next to be held in 2019); following legislative elections, the prime minister is selected by the majority party or majority coalition and appointed by the president
election results:
Beji CAID ESSEBSI elected president in second round; percent of vote - Beji CAID ESSEBSI (Call for Tunisia Party) 55.7%, Moncef MARZOUKI (CPR) 44.3%
Legislative branch:
description:
unicameral Assembly of the Representatives of the People or Majlis Nuwwab ash-Sha'b (Assemblee des representants du peuple) (217 seats; 199 members directly elected in Tunisian multi-seat constituencies and 18 members in multi-seat constituencies abroad by party-list proportional representation vote; members serve 5-year terms)
elections:
initial election held on 26 October 2014 (next to be held in 2019)
election results:
percent of vote by party - Call for Tunisia 37.6%, Ennahdha 27.8%, UPL 4.1%, Popular Front 3.6%, Afek Tounes 3%, CPR 2.1%, other 21.8%; seats by party - Call to Tunisia 86, Nahda 69, UPL 16, Popular Front 15, Afek Tounes 8, CPR 4, other 17, independent 2; composition - men 149, women 68, percent of women 31.3%
Note: in August 2018, Prime Minister CHAHED left the Nidaa Tounes party and began building the "National Coalition" bloc, partnering with the al-Nadha party to form a parliamentary majority; percent of vote by party as of November 2018 - al-Nadha 30.9%, Nidaa Tounes 21.2%, National Coalition 20.3%, Popular Front 6.9%, Machrou Tounes' Al-Horrah Bloc 6.9%, Democratic Bloc 5.5%, Loyalty to the Nation Bloc 5.1%, independent 3.2%; seats by party as of November 2018 - al-Nadha 67, Nidaa Tounes 46, National Coalition 44, Popular Front 15, Machrou Tounes' Al-Horrah Bloc 15, Democratic Bloc 12, Loyalty to the Nation Bloc 11, indpendent 7
Judicial branch:
highest courts:
Court of Cassation or Cour de Cassation (organized into 1 civil and 3 criminal chambers); Constitutional Court (established in 2014, but remained vacant as of late 2018)
judge selection and term of office:
Supreme Court judges nominated by the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), an independent 4-part body consisting mainly of elected judges and the remainder legal specialists; judge tenure based on terms of appointment; Constitutional Court NA
subordinate courts:
Courts of Appeal; administrative courts; Court of Audit; Housing Court; courts of first instance; lower district courts; military courts
note: the new Tunisian constitution of January 2014 called for the creation of a constitutional court by the end of 2015, but as of November 2018, the court had not been appointed; the court will consist of 12 members - 4 each appointed by the president, SJC, and the Chamber of the People's Deputies (parliament); members will serve 9-year terms with one-third of the membership renewed every 3 years
Political parties and leaders:
Afek Tounes [Yassine BRAHIM]Al Badil Al-Tounisi (The Tunisian Alternative) [Mehdi JOMAA]
Call for Tunisia (Nidaa Tounes) [Hafedh CAID ESSEBSI]
Congress for the Republic or CPR [Imed DAIMI]
Current of Love [Hachemi HAMDI] (formerly the Popular Petition party)
Democratic Alliance Party [Mohamed HAMDI]
Democratic Current [Mohamed ABBOU]
Democratic Patriots' Unified Party [Zied LAKHDHAR]
Free Patriotic Union or UPL (Union patriotique libre) [Slim RIAHI]
Green Tunisia Party [Abdelkader ZITOUNI]
Machrou Tounes (Tunisia Project) [Mohsen MARZOUK]
Movement of Socialist Democrats or MDS [Ahmed KHASKHOUSSI]
Nahda Movement (The Renaissance) [Rachid GHANNOUCHI]
National Destourian Initiative or El Moubadra [Kamel MORJANE]
Party of the Democratic Arab Vanguard [Ahmed JEDDICK, Kheireddine SOUABNI]
People's Movement [Zouheir MAGHZAOUI]
Popular Front (coalition includes Democratic Patriots' Unified Party, Workers' Party, Green Tunisia, Tunisian Ba'ath Movement, and Party of the Democratic Arab Vanguard)
Republican Party [Maya JRIBI]
Tunisian Ba'ath Movement [OMAR Othman BELHADJ]
Tunisia First (Tunis Awlan) [Ridha BELHAJ]
Workers' Party [Hamma HAMMAMI]
International organization participation:
ABEDA, AfDB, AFESD, AMF, AMU, AU, BSEC (observer), CAEU, CD, EBRD, FAO, G-11, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC (national committees), ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC (NGOs), LAS, MIGA, MONUSCO, NAM, OAS (observer), OIC, OIF, OPCW, OSCE (partner), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNOCI, UNWTO, UPU, WCO, WFTU (NGOs), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO
Diplomatic representation in the US:
chief of mission:
Ambassador Faycal GOUIA (since 18 May 2015)
chancery:
1515 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20005
telephone:
[1] (202) 862-1850
FAX:
[1] (202) 862-1858
Diplomatic representation from the US:
chief of mission:
Ambassador Daniel H. RUBINSTEIN (since 26 October 2015)
embassy:
Zone Nord-Est des Berges du Lac Nord de Tunis 1053
mailing address:
Zone Nord-Est des Berges du Lac Nord de Tunis 1053
telephone:
[216] 71 107-000
FAX:
[216] 71 107-090
Flag description:
red with a white disk in the center bearing a red crescent nearly encircling a red five-pointed star; resembles the Ottoman flag (red banner with white crescent and star) and recalls Tunisia's history as part of the Ottoman Empire; red represents the blood shed by martyrs in the struggle against oppression, white stands for peace; the crescent and star are traditional symbols of Islam
note: the flag is based on that of Turkey, itself a successor state to the Ottoman Empire
National symbol(s):
encircled red star and crescent; national colors: red, white
National anthem:
name:
"Humat Al Hima" (Defenders of the Homeland)
lyrics/music:
Mustafa Sadik AL-RAFII and Aboul-Qacem ECHEBBI/Mohamad Abdel WAHAB
note: adopted 1957, replaced 1958, restored 1987; Mohamad Abdel WAHAB also composed the music for the anthem of the United Arab Emirates
NOTE: 1) The information regarding Tunisia on this page is re-published from the 2019 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Tunisia Government 2019 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Tunisia Government 2019 should be addressed to the CIA.
2) The rank that you see is the CIA reported rank, which may habe the following issues:
a) They assign increasing rank number, alphabetically for countries with the same value of the ranked item, whereas we assign them the same rank.
b) The CIA sometimes assignes counterintuitive ranks. For example, it assigns unemployment rates in increasing order, whereas we rank them in decreasing order
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This page was last modified 08-Feb-19