TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisia is hoping to break through barriers with its first local elections since its Arab Spring revolution: They could bring the first woman mayor of the capital, the first Jewish official with an Islamist party and new flock of mayors with greater powers.
The North African country is trying to consolidate its young democracy with Sunday's elections, in which Tunisia's 5.3 million voters will choose local leadership from 2,000 lists of candidates.
The top vote-getters are expected to come from the Islamist Ennahdha party and the president's moderate secular Nida Tunis party, which govern together in a coalition.
More than half of the candidates are under 35 years old, and 49 percent are women, a rarity in the Arab world.
Tunisian protesters unleashed uprisings across the Arab world in 2011.