Tunisia's election result spurs protest

Kamel Jendoubi
Tunisia's Elections chief

Tunisia's election result spurs protest

Tunisia's Islamist Ennahda party has been declared winner of national elections with 41.5 per cent of votes cast, nine months after the toppling of long-time-ruler Zine el Abidine Ben Ali.

Elections chief, Kamel Jendoubi, announced in Tunis on Thursday that the party obtained 90 seats in a new 217-member assembly that will rewrite the constitution, appoint a president and form a caretaker government.

He said the leftist Congress for the Republic (CPR) came second with 13.8 per cent, representing 30 seats, while Ettakatol came third with 9.7 per cent or 21 seats.

Protests

Meanwhile, violent protests have erupted in central Tunisia, after the results of the country's first democratic elections in decades were announced.

More than 2,000 young people marched on the Sidi Bouzid headquarters of Ennahda, burned tyres and pelted security forces with stones.
Union official Mohamed Fadhel said protests spread to nearby Menzel Bouzayane where more than 1,000 people demonstrated.

Fadhel said demonstrators set fire to Ennahda's party office in Meknassy, 50km from Sidi Bouzid.

Reports say police used tear gas against hundreds of people in Sidi Bouzid who were protesting against the cancellation of seats won by one of the parties.

The town is the birthplace of the unrest which erupted earlier this year, triggering the Arab Spring uprisings.

A new assembly

After Ennahda was officially declared the winner, its leader Rachid Ghannouchi said: "We will continue this revolution to realise its aims of a Tunisia that is free, independent, developing and prosperous in which the rights of God, the Prophet, women, men, the religious and the non-religious are assured because Tunisia is for everyone."

Ennahda, banned under Ben Ali's regime and registered as a political party in March, had pre-empted its victory by announcing on Wednesday it had started coalition negotiations and intended to form a new government within a month.

The new assembly will decide on the country's system of government and how to guarantee basic liberties, including women's rights, which many in Tunisia fear Ennahda would seek to diminish despite its assurances to the contrary.

According to Analysts Ennahda, even in a majority alliance, would be unable to "dictate" its programme to the assembly, having no choice but to appease its alliance partners, a moderate-minded society and the international community on whose investment and tourism the country heavily relies.

PM's remarks

Beji Caid Sebsi, the current prime minister, said that he had no reason to doubt Ennahda's commitment to the secular state and democracy.

"I can't judge intentions, that's up to God," Sebsi told Egyptian newsmen"I can only judge by what's public and so far it's positive. At the end of the day, no one can come and change things completely.

"I think Ennahda will rule intelligently and deal with reality. It is not necessarily a dark force. Tunisia will continue to move forward and not go against history",he said.

Aljazeera/BBC/Adekusibe/Ekata