Less than nine percent of registered voters turned out for the Saturday's parliamentary election in Tunisia. Main opposition parties had called for a boycott of the polls as they say the vote is part of President Kais Saied's efforts to consolidate power.

The country's electoral authority said that the provisional turnout was 8.8 percent at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday when the poll stations were closed. 161 seats are being contested.

Saied led efforts to reform the constitution earlier this year. It now gives the president power to appoint a prime minister without parliamentary approval.

It also dilutes parliament's powers, making it subordinate to the presidency with little sway over government.

Opposition parties call the voting a passage leading to a one-man rule, reversing the country's democracy.

Saied urged Tunisians to cast their ballot after voting at a polling station in the capital Tunis, calling the election a historic day.

Tunisia has been viewed as the sole success of the Arab Spring pro-democracy movement after the nation's former autocratic government collapsed in 2011 following public protests.

But increasingly concerns are being expressed that it could return to an authoritarian system.