Tunis – The leader of Tunisia’s moderate Islamist party Ennahda, Rachid Ghannouchi, said he expects his party to win Sunday’s constituent assembly elections – the first comprehensive elections in an Arab Spring country – and warned of a revolt if the vote was not seen to be free and fair.
In an interview with dpa, Ghannouchi predicted Ennahda would get the lion’s share of the 217 seats in the constituent assembly, “if there is no dramatic change over the next three days.” “All opinion polls put us at the forefront of the results,” he said.
“We hope that, this time, the election will be free and fair, and if it’s not then we will join hands with forces of the revolution to make sure we go back to achieving the aims of the revolution,” he vowed.
Polls show the party, which was banned under ousted dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his predecessor Habib Bourguiba, as winning around 30 per cent of the first free vote in Tunisia since independence from France in 1956. Previous elections were routinely rigged.
The main task of the assembly members will be to draw up a new constitution that address the injustices that sparked the December/January Jasmine Revolution.
The election will be the first indication of how much support Islamists have in a country that has held a secular, pro-Western line since independence, with equal rights for men and women and more social freedoms than any other Arab state.
Many of Ennahda’s supporters say they fear that lingering members of the old regime could try to thwart the party’s possible victory, without saying how exactly.
Some secularists, meanwhile, fear that if Ennahda were victorious, it would try to roll back some of those freedoms and row back on women’s rights.
Ghannouchi, who was imprisoned for 11 years and spent 20 years in exile over his political activities, assured the party was committed to pluralism and democracy and had no intention of trying to implement Islamic law.
“I can confirm we will not ban mixed beaches and we will not impose a certain dress code,” said the softly-spoken 70-year-old, who wears pin-striped suits and glasses.
“We don’t want the state to interfere in people’s private lives. We want the people to choose whether they want to have a veil on or not have a veil on,” he said.
Under Ben Ali, the veil was banned in public places – a ban most Tunisians considered extreme.
As proof of the party’s openness, Ghannouchi points to the fact that a businesswoman, Souad Abderrahim, who does not wear a hijab (veil), is head of Ennahda’s election list in Tunis.
And yet many secular Tunisians say they suspect the party of double-speak, and of concealing its real agenda.
The divide between secular Tunisians and Islamists deepened last week, following a major demonstration in Tunis over the broadcast by a television channel of an animated movie depicting God. Islam forbids the representation of God.
More than 10 000 people demonstrated after Friday prayers to demand the closure of Nessma TV.
A number of the demonstrators, who were repelled by police with teargas, appeared with the long beards and robes of Salafists, who follow a strict interpretation of Islam.
Later that evening, a group of more than 100 extremists firebombed the home of Nessma TV’s station chief, causing extensive damage.
While condemning the violence, Ennahda was vocal in its condemnation of the station that showed the film.
“They’re free not to believe in the divine, they’re free to consume alcohol and live their lives. That doesn’t give them the freedom to attack the (religious) beliefs of the majority,” Ghannouchi said.
Asked about the growing visibility of Salafists and the radical banned Hizb-ub-Tahir group whose members have also held demonstrations since the overthrow of Ben Ali, Ghannouchi blamed Ben Ali.
By banning moderate Islamists, “the previous regime has contributed to the emergence of these phenomena,” he said, while promising to “try to have dialogue with these factions, to try to convince them of the need for pluralism and diversity.”
The most pressing issue for the Constituent Assembly, he said, would be to tackle the factors that sparked the December/January uprising: corruption and dictatorship.
“We want to establish a parliamentary system, as opposed to the presidential one-man system,” Ghannouchi said, calling the presidential system in place since 1956 “the root cause of all Tunisia’s problems.”
Ghannouchi also called for a new development model, giving a greater share of resources to the country’s depressed agricultural interior where unemployment triggered the uprising in December. He said he would also pursue advanced-partner status with the European Union, Tunisia’s biggest trading partner.
At the same time, Ennahda would also work on deepening relations with the Arab world, Asia and Africa.
“We don’t believe our relationship with Europe is enough to solve the (economic) crisis,” he said. – Sapa-dpa