Editing Politics of Tunisia (section)

===Legislative branch===

Tunisia's legislative branch consists of the [[Assembly of the Representatives of the People (Tunisia)|Assembly of the Representatives of the People]], with 217 seats. The first elections for the Assembly of the Representative of the People occurred on 26 October 2014.

Before the [[Tunisian Revolution|2011 revolution]] the parliament was [[Bicameralism|bicameral]]. The lower house was the [[Chamber of Deputies of Tunisia]] (''Majlis al-Nuwaab''), which had 214 seats. Members were elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms. At least 25% of the seats in the House of Deputies were reserved for the opposition. More than 27% of the members of the Chamber of Deputies were women. The lower house played a growing role as an arena for debate on national policy, especially as it hosted representatives from six opposition parties. Opposition members often voted against bills or abstained. However, because the governing party enjoyed a comfortable majority, bills usually passed with only minor changes.<ref>[http://www.chambre-dep.tn/ The Council of Deputies] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100709222439/http://www.chambre-dep.tn/ |date=2010-07-09 }}, Republic of Tunisia.</ref>

The upper house was the Chamber of Advisors, which had 112 members, including representatives of governorates (provinces), professional organizations and national figures. Of these, 41 were appointed by the head of state while 71 were elected by their peers. About 15% of the members of the Chamber of Advisors were women.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.chambredesconseillers.tn/ |title=Chamber of Advisers |access-date=2010-11-24 |archive-date=2021-05-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503120545/http://chambredesconseillers.tn/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>