Tunisian civil parties unite against Ennahda

Mahmoud Mohammady

The Tunisian people are about to turn over a new page with the presidential polls, which are scheduled to take place on September 15.

Tunisia’s Independent High Electoral Authority (ISIE) has announced a list of 26 candidates, including Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, former premier Mehdi Jomaa, the vice-president of the moderate Islamist party Ennahda, Abdel Fattah Mourou, and Defense Minister Abdelkarim Zbidi, former Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki and Nabil Karoui, businessman and owner of the private channel Nessma TV, former tourism minister Salma Loumi and Abir Moussi.

Commenting on the political situation in Tunisia, Tunisian journalist and political researcher Wissam Hamdi said that the relationship between Ennahda and Salafis has been very clear, especially following the Tunisian revolution.

Hamdi explained that that the Salafis are the backers of Ennahda at all times against the modern and civil political forces.

The Tunisian researcher told THE REFERENCE that Ennahda will bet on Salafis in the upcoming presidential elections to promote its rhetoric and to revive societal confrontations such as niqab, which was banned in Tunisia, as well as women’s inheritance rights.

Hamdi said the Salafis do not go to the polling stations, but they badmouth the civil parties and secular figures like thinker Youssef Seddik, former president Beji Caid Essebsi, and MP Bochra Belhaj Hmida.