UNDATED, Aug 21: Step by step, the once-shunned officials of Tunisia’s old order have returned to the political scene and are turning up the pressure on the governing Islamist party Ennahda to make way for them.
These so-called ‘remnants’ from Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali’s rule were swept aside by the first of the ‘Arab Spring’ revolts in January 2011 and trounced in voting for a constituent assembly later that year. The assembly has considered banning them from politics completely.
But two murders of leftist leaders this year by suspected radical Salafis and mounting dissatisfaction with Ennahda’s Islamist agenda have plunged Tunisian politics into turmoil, prompting the assembly to suspend its work.
Since the second assassination in late July, ex-officials regrouped in new political parties have spoken out more openly and helped organise and fill the ranks of mass rallies to demand Ennahda step aside and allow new elections.
It now looks likely that the proposed ban, which would shut about 30,000 ‘remnants’ out of politics, will get lost in the political tumult and the opposition parties will emerge as a potentially strong challenger to Ennahda in the next election.
‘The ex-officials want to return under another flag,’ said Tunis University professor Sami Brahmi, referring to about half a dozen parties where they are active. ‘They’re the ones who are benefitting the most from what is happening.’
One major beneficiary is Beji Caid Essebsi, who was briefly parliament speaker under the autocrat Ben Ali. Opinion polls give his party some 30 percent support, about equal with the Islamists.
His pivotal role in solving Tunisia’s crisis was confirmed last week when Ennahda chairman Rached Ghannouchi made a secret trip to Paris, where Essebsi was on a visit, to hold his first talks with the man the Islamists had until then shunned.
Another beneficiary is Kamel Morjane, defence and then foreign minister from 2005 until 2011. His party, smaller than Essebsi’s, is the most active in defending former officials of Ben Ali’s now banned Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD).
(agencies)
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