(TAP) - "It is necessary to consider the election results differently; not in terms of abstention rates, but rather in terms of turnout,"President Kais Saied said Monday evening.

"90% of the people targeted by the elections abstained from voting. This is an indication that parliament no longer means anything to this large section of the electorate," he remarked as he met Prime Minister Najla Bouden.

Commenting on the election results, President Saied considered that the voters' indifference in the legislative elections' first and second rounds had been a sanction vote.

The low turnout is a clear sign of a decade of parliamentary fiasco. A decade in which parliament has become ''an anti-state institution."

The President further indicated that the 11.4% turnout rate in the elections announced by the Independent Higher Authority for the Elections (ISIE) is a striking testimony to the "lack of credibility" and "lack of trust shown by Tunisians towards these institutions."

The election results are an opportunity to analyse in depth these figures and to understand the general situation in the country, he pointed out, reaffirming commitment to the State and its institutions and to the achievemnt of the people's aspirations.

Criticising the deniers of the election results, the President of the Republic pointed out that they only arouse "contempt and discredit" among the people.

Their reaction is tantamount to a "high treason" against the will of the people, just as it testifies to their "subservience to foreign interests," he added.