European Forum

Tunisian President Ben Ali wins Presidential poll for the fifth time

On 25 October incumbent President Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali won the Presidential elections with a landslide victory of  89.62 per cent of the votes. Ben Ali, who has been in power for 22 years, was re-elected for a new five-year term. The ruling party, the Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD), also held on to the vast majority of seats in the Chamber of Deputies. Official figures say the Presidential had a turnout of 84 per cent. International human rights groups have alleged, however, that campaigning took place in an atmosphere of repression.

Atmosphere of repression
According to Human Rights Watch repressive acts and tight controls on the election process have tainted the prospects for free and fair elections. President Ben Ali proclaimed that his government has "endeavoured to provide for these elections all the guarantees of transparency and honesty." But tailor-made laws have prevented the candidates from some of the stronger opposition parties from running, and severe constraints on freedoms of expression, the press, and assembly have deprived challengers from making their case to the public. It was therefore inevitable that Ben Ali would win another term. The head of the African Union observer delegation, Benjamin Boungolous, described Sunday's election as free and fair, but opposition groups disagreed. They said there was no genuine freedom of choice during the election.

Other candidates
Already in July 2008  a constitutional amendment was approved that stipulates that the head of any political party who has been in his position at least two years may run as candidate. For this year’s election, the two-year stipulation ruled out all but three candidates aside from Ben Ali. The most important was Ahmed Ibrahim, Secretary General of the Movement for Renewal, who tried to run a serious campaign but acknowledged during the campaign that he could not win. The other two candidates - Mohamed Bouchiha of the Popular Unity Party and Ahmed Inoubli of the Unionist Democratic Union – rarely criticised the President and were only in the elections to show (according to them) their support for the democratic course. The Constitutional Court rejected the candidacy of Mustafa Ben Jaafar of the Democratic Forum for Freedoms and Labor on September 27 because it ruled that he did not meet the two year rule. Jaafar, and other prominent opposition figures did not take part in the election. During the elections, the opposition candidates Mohamed Bouchiha, Ahmed Inoubli and Ahmed Ibrahim, obtained 5.01 per cent, 3.80 per cent and 1.57 per cent of the votes respectively.

In power for 22 years
The elections were the fifth Presidential elections since Ben Ali took power in 1987 after having dismissed as legally incompetent Habib Bourguiba, Tunisia’s first President. Ben Ali has never received less than 94 per cent of the votes in the four elections since then. The Ben Ali regime has tried to add a type of electoral legitimacy to a closed political system centred on individual power and backed by the hegemony of his ruling RCD.

In the past, Ben Ali has introduced some changes to the Parliamentary election law and the process for nominating Presidential candidates. The former required changing the electoral system. Since 1994 it has been a dual system, granting 75 per cent of seats to the party that attains a simple majority in the elections and 25 per cent to the other parties based on their share of the votes. In the current elections, this will amount to 161 seats for the RCD and 53 seats for all other parties combined. This system allows for an appearance of pluralism in the Chamber of Deputies without threatening the ruling party’s hegemony.

The Tunisian constitution does not allow the 73-year-old Ben Ali to run again for the Presidency after this term, the maximum age being 75 years. This obstacle will be crucial in reshuffling the political deck in Tunisia, raising the question of whether the regime will succeed once again in reinventing itself.


Sources: BBC News, Tunisia Online News, All Africa, Euronews, google images (picture)