Ennahda losing popularity in Tunisia

Asmaa El-Batakoushy

Ennahda  Movement, the Muslim Brotherhood’s arm in Tunisia, is suffering from public rejection, a poll has revealed. The poll, conducted by Sigma Conseil, has revealed how Ennahda has become so unpopular with its leader Rached al-Ghannouchi rejected by Tunisians as parliament speaker.

According to the poll, 72 percent of Tunisians rejected al-Ghannouchi’s presidency of the parliament, and said they wouldn’t want him to have any political role in the country’s future.

Sigma Conseil  said Tunsian Prime minister Elyès Fakhfakh obtained a rise of 17 points with a confidence rate of 44 percent against 51 percent for Abdellatif Mekki who in turn gained 37 points. President Kais Saied lost six points in the poll but managed to score 61percent.

Tunisian political researcher Narjess Binkemra said al-Ghannouchi’s falling popularity is a result of his failure to manage parliamentary work, as well as his inability to usher in political coexistence.

She added in press statements that al-Ghannouchi is popular only among the Muslim Brotherhood’s circles.  A previous poll, which was conducted in November 2018, showed that al-Ghannouchi bottomed the popularity of political figures in Tunisia.

Tunisian writer and analyst Belhassan Yehyawy said al-Ghannouchi denies in public his connections to the Muslim Brotherhood, but he meet with Brotherhood members, like terrorist Wagdy Ghoneim, in private.

“Al-Ghannouchi changes his political stances just like the Muslim Brotherhood does. It is a Brotherhood habit to do so,” Yehyawy told THE REFERENCE.

Al-Ghannouchi is known for his sectarian speech. On March 25, 2013, he considered only the Brotherhood’s members to be Muslims.

The Brotherhood’s popularity decline has been a result of the organization’s links to Turkey, which supports terrorism in the region. Tunisia’s trade balance with Turkey posted a deficit worth$8 billion in October 2018.

In September 2018, Tunisian activists circulated a Qatari document on the social media. The Qatari document revealed that 1,800 young people from the Maghreb countries had traveled to Syria, in cooperation with Ennahda Movement.

The document was signed by Qatari Acting Chargé d’Affaires, Nayef Abdullah al-Emadi, and was sent to director of the Arab Affairs Department at the Qatari Foreign Ministry in Doha.

The document revealed Ennahda’s role in hosting the volunteers before transferring them to Libya and then to Turkey and Syria.