04:55 GMT 21st December 2011
On October 24, 10 months after Zine alAbidine Ben Ali fled into exile in the face of unprecedented pro-democracy protests, Tunisians went to the polls to make history once more.
'Tunisians showed the world how to make a peaceful revolution without icons, without ideology,' said Moncef Marzouki, leader of the Congress Party for the Republic, as he waited to cast his ballot at a polling station in the coastal town of Sousse. 'And now we are going to show the world how we can build a real democracy. This will have a real impact in places like Libya and Egypt and Syria . .. The whole Arab world is watching.'
A dizzying array of parties, more than 100 in all, emerged to contest the poll. The voter turnout was equally remarkable, with more than 90 per cent of registered voters coming out to cast their ballots. Winning more than 40 per cent of the ballots to take 90 seats of the 218-member assembly, the country's legislative body, the moderate Islamist party Ennahda emerged as victors.
It is an extraordinary feat for a parry whose leaders and supporters had suffered exile, imprisonment and torture for more than two decades under the Ben Ali regime. The Congress Party for the Republic, a centreleft secularist party, came second, winning nearly 14 per cent of the vote to secure 30 seats in the assembly. Another centre-left secular party, the Democratic Forum for Labour and Liberties, known in Arabic as Ettakatol, secured third place, with 21 seats. International observers and local monitors kept a watchful eye on the voting and counting of the ~ ballots and the poll was hailed as free and fair. Tunisians were electing a 218-member constituent assembly that will oversee the drafting of a new constitution and govern the country until general elections are held next year.
Founded in 1981 by Rachid Ghannouchi, Ennahda came second to Ben Ali's Constitutional Democratic Rally in 1989. Ben Ali banned the party shortly afterwards and Ghannouchi fled into exile in the UK and returned earlier this year to lead his party again on home soil. Ennahda's campaign message that the parry represented the best chance of a clear break with the corruption and repression of the old regime resonated with many Tunisians - although the party fell short of winning an outright majority.
As a power-sharing deal among the three largest parties emerging from the elections, Ennahda proposed that its secretary general, Hamadi Jebali, and Marzouki of the Congress Party for the Republic act, respectively, as interim prime minister and president. Ettakatol's Mustafa Ben Jaafar will serve as the speaker of the constitutional assembly.
The death Mohamed Bouazizi, a young unemployed man who set himself on fire in December 2010 after police confiscated a fruit and vegetable stall he set up without a permit was the spark that ignited the Tunisian revolt. On voting day, Reuters quoted Bouazizi's mother as saying that the elections were 'a moment of victory' for her son 'who died defending dignity and liberty' and whose self-immolation emboldened the Tunisian people to stand up to injustice.
Ennahda, which means 'renaissance' in Arabic, is regarded as a moderate party. No strangers to political persecution themselves, the party leaders have pledged a strong commitment to establish a tolerant, pluralistic democracy in which the rights of all are respected. Ghannouchi says his party is committed to building a new Tunisia that will be open and progressive, but which also maintains the country's traditional Islamic values - with emphasis on the family. As a model, Ennahda's leadership looks to Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party, a socially conservative but economically liberal party which has been successful in recent years.
At the same time, the new leadership is eager to stress that it does not intend to impose a code of morality on Tunisian society. The smallest of the Maghreb countries, Tunisia is a predominantly Muslim nation, but many people have a relaxed attitude towards religion. To reassure foreign investors and secular Tunisians alike, Ennahda promised that it will not impose Islamic banking, which prohibits interest, and that there will be no ban on alcohol or bikinis on the country's beaches.
Tunisia has a strong tradition of respect for women's rights and Ennahda officials have promised to champion equal opportunities in education and employment. The party has also pledged to uphold a woman's right to choose whether or not to adopt an Islamic dress code and that it will not tinker with the country's penal code, which outlaws polygamy -making Tunisia the only Arab nation to do.
After a long period of state-imposed secularism, there is also desire among many Tunisians to express their faith freely. The headscarf, which many Tunisian women choose to wear, was banned from schools and government offices under Ben Ali. 'We are against the imposition of the headscarf in the name of Islam and we are against the banning of the head scarf in the name of secularism or modernity,' Ghannouchi said in an interview with Al Jazeera.
Ennahda's leaders are convinced that their inclusive approach will succeed in reconciling Islamic principles with western-style democracy and can serve as a model for other countries in the region which are experiencing political upheaval. In an interview with the BBC, Ghannouchi, said that his party espouses 'a moderate vision of Islam which can be compatible with democracy. We accept the notion of citizenship as the basis for rights, so all citizens are equal.'
One of the areas of priority for Tunisia's new leaders is cleaning up the country's notorious police force as well as the corrupt justice system - which preserved Ben Ali's repressive regime for more than 20 years. The new leaders also inherit an economy in severe recession. Foreign investors have not yet regained their confidence since the start of the uprising and the tourism sector, which, before the uprising had been a top holiday destination and one of the country's top foreign currency earners, is struggling. There is also a huge disparity between the mostly developed coastal cities and towns and Tunisia's impoverished rural interior.
Unemployment, one of the root causes of the revolt that toppled Ben Ali, remains crippling. Official figures put the unemployment rate at 19 per cent, but it is believed to be much higher - especially among young people, including university graduates. Ennahda has promised to create 590,000 new jobs over the next five years and reduce the unemployment rate to 8.5 per cent. As a model for social development, Ennahda looks to Sweden, which is a welfare state - 'while [still] encouraging entrepreneurs,' according to Ghannouchi.
Despite possessing less abundant natural resources than its neighbours, Tunisia has succeeded in attracting considerable inflows of foreign investment in recent years. Having started earlier the process of eliminating tariffs on bilateral trade with the EU, Tunisia was the first country in the Mediterranean region to sign an Association Agreement with the EU in 199 5. It completed the process of dismantling tariffs for industrial products in 2008 and became the first country to enter in a free trade zone with the EU, currently a key trading partner for Tunisia.
Tunisia is the second most-industrialised nation on the continent, after South Africa, and has a large educated, urban middle class which has a firm grasp of the democratic process. Analysts believe that Tunisia has the best chance, among the countries swept up by the Arab Spring uprisings, of establishing a genuinely pluralistic form of government. Ennahda does not see itself as dissimilar to the Christian democratic parties that are common in Europe. The acceptance of the poll results also suggests a political maturity which could lead to a rare partnership between religious and secular parties in the region. In neighbouring Algeria, a poll victory for an Islamist party 20 years ago led to a military coup and sparked a decade of bloodshed.
On the eve of the poll, the first democratic elections resulting from the Arab Spring uprisings, a commentary posted on the Tunisian daily Le Temps read, 'Whatever our fears, our joys or our disappointments may be [regarding the results of the poll], we have to be happy, confident and proud to have put Tunisia on the road to a pluralist democracy and the rule of law.'
As the results of the poll were announced, Ghannouchi reassured the nation, saying, 'We will continue this revolution to realise its aims of a Tunisia that is free, independent, developing and prosperous.'
The challenges facing Tunisia as the nation embarks on the road to full development and democracy are many and achieving the high ideals of the so-called Jasmine Revolution will take time. To be sure, with its relatively small, educated and homogenous population, Tunisia has been fortunate to have sparked the Arab Spring uprisings and yet to have come through with the least bloodshed, in the shortest span of time and, significantly, without foreign intervention. Having held its first free and fair elections successfully, the country is now poised to serve as a beacon for democracy in the region.
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