Election fever grips Tunisia

TUNIS, Jan 30 (AFP): Election fever is sweeping Tunisia well ahead of parliamentary and presidential polls set for late 2019.

President Beji Caid Essebsi has accused Prime Minister Youssef Chahed of seeking power through a secret deal with an Islamist party.

Meanwhile economic woes, mass strikes over public sector wages, and bitter divisions within Essebsi's party have focused attention on the elections.

Here is some background on Tunisia's third round of national polls since the 2011 revolution that toppled longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and sparked the Arab Spring uprisings.

Tunisia's post-revolution 2014 constitution demands legislative elections within two months of parliament's mandate expiring - between October and early December.