Tunisians head to the polls in the *Arab world’s first free elections

[Valin]

Arab News:


A man holds a list of candidates for the Anahda party in Sidi Bou Said, a popular tourist district, north of Tunisia on Saturday. (Reuters)
MICHEL COUSINS
Oct 22, 2011

TUNIS: Tunisians go to the polls today, Sunday, with a bewildering number of candidates to choose from. Some 117 parties have been authorized to stand — secularist, Islamist, socialist, communist, Baathist, center-left, center-right, green and more. Even some parties with no ideology at all. The moderate and well organized Islamist Ennahda party led by Rached Ghannouchi is expected to win the largest number of votes with the centrist and secularist Progressive Democrat Party (PDP) coming second, but with so many parties involved and possible permutations of alliances, it was impossible on the eve of polling to predict whether Tunisia will remain on a secularist path, head down an Islamist one or end up with a grand coalition running the country.

It is be Tunisia’s first free elections since independence in 1956 and, according to Tunisians and others, the first genuinely free contest ever in the Arab world. There were elections under Tunisia’s post independence President Habib Bourguiba and then his successor, President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali who was overthrown in January, but they were not free and fair. Parties opposed to the ruling party were banned. Turnout was usually around 10 percent although it was always put much higher.

The vote brings to an end the initial transitional period that started with the January revolution. Technically, it is purely for a 217-member constituent assembly that will draw up a new constitution. In reality, the assembly can, and probably will, name a new head of state to replace acting President Fouad Mebazaa, and he in turn could appoint a new prime minister and Cabinet.

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[Valin]

Amir Tahri

 

(Snip)One is that of the Islam-oriented parties and groups, with Ennahda (The Revival) in the lead. Banned under the deposed dictator Zine el-Abedin Ben Ali, Ennahda (initially a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood) has succeeded in uniting a variety of Islamist groups. Its leader, Rached el-Ghannouchi, says he is interested in the “Turkish model,” which allows for an Islamic government to operate in a secular society.

 

The second bloc is led by the Progressive Democratic Party of Naguib Chebbi, who says he is interested in America’s Democrat Party as a model. The PDP says it wants an economic system based on “the social market,” with the government playing a central role in distributing wealth and opportunities.

 

The vanguard of the third bloc is the Democratic Forum for Labor and Liberty, led by Mustafa Ben Jaafar. Despite its left-sounding name, the party is right-of-center and emphasizes the separation of religion and politics.

 

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