Tunisia to hold presidential elections within 2014

Tunisia's legislative and presidential elections will be held before the end of 2014, the media cited Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa and Head of Elections Board (ISIE) Chafik Sarsar as saying Tuesday.

Significant progress has been made in preparing for the next elections, Jomaa said following his meeting with elections board members Monday evening, according to Xinhua.

The ISIE had earlier asked the government for 10 million dinars ($6.3 million) as election budget and Jomaa said his government has granted an advance in March.

Sarsar explained that the first estimation of the election expenses was around 100 million dinars, but the ISIE is working on reducing the cost to guarantee that the elections will happen by 2014-end.

In addition, two scenarios are currently being discussed about the election: one is to hold simultaneous legislative and presidential elections and the other is to hold them separately and have two rounds of presidential election rounds.

No final decision has been reached yet and political parties have been divided about the two options.