Qatar funds Ennahda in Tunisia’s polls

Doaa Emam

Tunisian Ennahda , the Muslim Brotherhood’s branch in Tunisia, has faced a number of suspicions since 2011 that it has received funds from foreign parties in violation of the country’s law.

The Tunisian law bans receiving any foreign funds as it obligates Tunisian parties and associations to disclose their financial accounts and sources of funding.

With the upcoming legislative elections in Tunisia, the significance of foreign funding becomes a serious issue, especially for Ennahda, which considers the parliamentary elections a matter of life and death.

The Tunisian law, which was passed on September 24, 2011, bans in its 19^th chapter any political party from receiving any foreign funding and from unknown sources.

The law allows associations to receive foreign funding. However, such aid should not be directed to any political parties.

Tunisian researcher Naila Selini has tried to reveal the funding sources of the Brotherhood’s Ennahda in an investigative report titled “For Unlocking the Financial Secrets of the Muslim Brotherhood”.

The researcher compared what the Egyptian Brotherhood committed in Egypt with Ennahda in Tunisia.

Selini stressed that the similarity between the two cases.  She pointed out to a report by Tunisia’s Department of Accounting that talked about secret funding of the Muslim Brotherhood, and how that exceeded the cap set for Ennahda’s candidates.

A report issued on April 24 accused Ennahda of receiving donations from deceased people in the 2018, 2017 and 2018 municipal elections. The donations totaled 12 million Tunisian dinars ($ 5 million).

Selini wondered why the judicial authorities haven’t investigated accusations to Ennahda’s overspending violations.

Qatar has also been involved in financing Ennahda. According to the abovementioned report issued by the Accounting Department, funding violations were committed in 2014, in the Tunisian elections with funds received from foreign donors, especially Qatar.

The report said some political parties, including Ennahda, and other Islamist parties as well as individuals had received the money, which was used to buy votes.