SIDI BOUZID, Tunisia — Omar and Youssef, aged 9 and 10, train daily at a gleaming Olympic-size pool in Sidi Bouzid. “We want to compete in the Olympics, that is our dream,” said Youssef, his arm slung over the younger boy as they emerged from the water. It's a startling scene. The gritty rural backwater is where Mohammed Bouazizi, a young street vendor, set himself on fire Dec. 17, 2010, to protest discrimination and corruption under Tunisia’s brutal dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Bouazizi died a few weeks later, a tragedy that is credited with sparking Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution, and many say the Arab Spring. 

Sidi Bouzid, with its mix of chronic ills and progress, has since emerged as something of a barometer for Tunisia’s progress, as other Arab countries swept up by the uprisings have lapsed back into authoritarianism and violence.

On Sunday, the town’s people will join millions of fellow Tunisians to deliver their verdict in nationwide parliamentary elections, its most unpredictable race to date and the second since the North African country began electing its leaders after Ben Ali’s fall.

Judging by the results of the first round of presidential elections held Sept. 15, incumbents are hanging on to their seats by a thread. That vote was a crushing rebuke of the country’s governing coalition led by pro-secular Prime Minister Youssef Chahed and the pro-Islamist Ennahda party, which have shared power since 2014 but failed to improve standards of living. Kais Saied, a conservative law professor hailed for probity, and Nabil Karoui, a jailed media magnate, came first and second, respectively, with Ennahda’s candidate trailing at a distant third and Chahed a humiliating eighth. Leftists fared even worse.