Al-Ahram Weekly 28 Oct. - 3 Nov. 1999 Issue No. 453
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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Pluralism 'within limits'

By Dalal Abu Ghazaleh

Tunisian President Zine Al-Abidine Bin Ali, already more than 12 years in office, received 99.44 per cent of the vote in the country's first presidential elections in which there was more than one candidate, held on Sunday 24 October. The remaining half per cent of Tunisia's 3.3 million eligible voters was divided between Bin Ali's two opponents, Abderahmen Tlili and Mohamed Belhadj Amor.

The ruling party, the Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD), which the president leads, also kept its firm hold on a slightly expanded parliament, winning 148 out of the 182 seats. The country's five legal, but marginal, opposition parties shared a total of 34 seats that had been allocated to them by law. Final results from the North African country's 25 electoral districts showed that the RCD had amassed between 85 and 96.73 per cent of the vote.

The results had never been in doubt, but some politicians have nevertheless insisted that the elections mark a new step towards political pluralism and democracy in Tunisia. Their main advantage, they insist, was to allow debate on the present condition and future of democracy in the country, something which has not happened since its independence from the former colonial power France, in 1956.

Bin Ali, a former interior minister and intelligence officer, won almost 100 per cent of the vote as the single candidate in both the 1989 and 1994 presidential elections. This time round, voters were allowed to choose between him and Amor, 62, head of the leftist Popular Unity Party, and Tlili, 56, head of the Unionist Democratic Union, an Arab nationalist party. However, the results differed little from those of the two previous elections and reached the magic number of 99 per cent in favour of a third presidential term.

Amor said that he was running for president in order to help to break the mold of the single-candidate elections that Tunisia has known since independence. In a recent interview, he said he regretted "the absence of democratic debate" in the campaign, and the existence of the "pot of dirt against the pot of iron", a reference to insufficient election funds for all but the president.

Tlili, who called for greater democracy and for freedom of the press in his campaign, described the elections as a "historic action, whose value people will realise and face in a few years time". He said he had entered the race in order "to contribute to the maturation of the democratic process."

Tunisian President Zine Al-Abidine Bin Ali was re-elected for a third term on Sunday (photo: AP)

However, human rights groups say that despite the government's declared commitment to political pluralism and to press freedom, the gap between its rhetoric and its actual policies remains wide. In particular, they have criticised the regime for a variety of alleged abuses, including the harassment of opponents and rights activists, the stifling of the press, and the imprisonment and torture of political opponents. Some went further and said that Tunisia was in danger of becoming a police state.

Supporters of President Bin Ali, on the other hand, said that any remaining authoritarianism was necessary in a volatile region beset by Islamist militancy, rising poverty and unemployment. They believe that Bin Ali has quickly turned Tunisia into one of the most modern of all the Arab states, being an economically stable country that has won accolades from the West for its moves toward a market economy and for its liberal laws on the status of women.

In announcing the results of the elections, Interior Minister Ali Chaouch said that the overwhelming popular endorsement of President Bin Ali would allow him to make good on his pledges to effect a new political opening "within certain limits".

But critics said that economic openness has not been matched in political life, where the authorities maintain an iron grip on Tunisia's 9.4 million people.

In a country where dissent is rare, opposing voices come from the liberal and democratic elite grouped in the National Council for Freedoms in Tunisia (CNLT) and in the Democratic Forum for Labour and Freedom (FDLT), which said in a recent communiqué that "these elections can only be a missed opportunity and a formality in a context where fundamental freedoms are lacking and where the ruling party has a monopoly on public life."

This will be the third and last presidential term for Bin Ali, since the Tunisian constitution does not allow for more than three successive terms in office.

Bin Ali came to power in a bloodless palace coup in 1987, which toppled the allegedly senile President-for-Life Habib Bourguiba, the nation's founder. Bourguiba and Bin Ali have been the only presidents Tunisia has had since 1957, when the country's monarchy was abolished.