The National Democratic Institute (NDI) organized this round of focus groups in May 2015 as the Essid government neared the milestone of its first 100 days. 

Since March 2011, NDI has conducted regular qualitative research in Tunisia to provide political and civic leaders with objective information about citizens’ attitudes. This 13th round of research—the second organized by NDI since the 2014 elections—sought to gauge the public’s evaluation of the performance of new political institutions and leaders in this initial post-electoral period, as well as expectations for the future. Citizens participated in 12 focus group discussions between May 2 and 9, 2015 to share their views on the following topics:

• The direction of the country and priorities that affect citizen’s daily lives;

• The performance of the Assembly of Peoples’ Representatives (ARP) and of the executive government;

• Expectations of members of parliament and preferences for elected representatives to engage with citizens;

• The causes of various economic challenges and potential solutions to remedy them; and,

• Views on the current security situation and the state’s efforts to combat terrorism.

The Institute commissioned ELKA Consulting to organize the study in four Tunisian governorates. ELKA is a marketing and public opinion research firm based in Tunisia.

For NDI, the study represents the 13th in a series of focus group research in Tunisia dating back to March 2011.