Ben Ali wins fifth term, retains legislative majority
2009-10-26
Tunisian voters re-elected President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and reaffirmed the ruling party's parliamentary mandate.
By Jamel Arfaoui and Mona Yahia for Magharebia in Tunis – 26/10/09
 [STR/AFP/Getty Images] Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (right) and wife Leila (left) greet voters at a Carthage polling station on Sunday. |
Incumbent President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and the ruling Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD) scored sweeping victories Sunday (October 25th) in Tunisia's presidential and legislative elections.
Ben Ali secured his fifth 5-year presidential term by winning 89.62% of the ballot.
Even with a reported voter turnout of 89%, (4.7 million out of 5.29 million registered voters), the three challengers trailed far behind; Party of Popular Unity Party (PUP) candidate Mohamed Bouchiha received 5.01%, Ahmed Inoubli of the Democratic Unionist Democratic Union (UDU) won 3.8 % and Ahmed Brahim of Ettajdid (Renewal) Movement received 1.57% of the vote.
The win "confirms the attachment of the Tunisian people, whether men or women, inside or outside Tunisia, to President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali", Tunis Afrique Presse editorialised.
Many voters said they expected a Ben Ali victory.
"Do you think I was surprised with the result?" asked Maher Neghmouchi. "The contenders of Ben Ali were too weak," he added. "Most of them are not even known to the ordinary people."
Sana ben Hamida, who spoke with Magharebia at a Tunis polling station, said she voted for Ahmed Brahim "out of principle and nothing else". After casting her ballot, she added, "I believe that he won't win."
On Friday, five NGOs complained that Ben Ali and his Democratic Constitutional Rally had received disproportionate media coverage. Field monitoring of seven daily newspapers "showed that President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali presidential campaign received 97.23% of the coverage space, while the other three candidates shared, with a bit of variance, the remaining coverage", the NGOs claimed. As to the parliamentary election, the report claimed that the "ruling party dominated the coverage".
The National Observatory for Elections countered that the NGO allegations were groundless. Observatory chief Abdelwaheb El Behi asserted to Magharebia that the election was conducted under normal and smooth conditions.
The Observatory received about 10 complaints of "organisational problems" he said, adding that they were quickly resolved.
Polling stations in Tunisia and abroad were monitored by 26 Tunisian observers, 16 African Union (AU) observers and 11 representatives of European and Arab countries.
Former Algerian minister and election observer Saïda Benhabyles confirmed to Magharebia that Sunday's poll complied with all the standards of a fair election.
"The people were aware of the enormity of responsibility on their shoulders to choose the president who will rule their country which already enjoys stability, security and economic development," he said.
The British head of the international observer team, Sydney Assor, also said he found no election irregularities.
"I met with people and spoke with them in front of polling stations. They were all satisfied with the performance of supervisors of election, and they didn't complain about any pressures from any entity whatsoever," he told Magharebia.
In the legislative elections, Ben Ali's ruling Constitutional and Democratic Rally (RCD) won 161 seats out of 214 in the lower house of parliament, while six of the eight competing parties will share the remaining 53 seats.
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Anonymous Posted 24 days ago
On 13 October 1947, the American pilot Chuck Yeager was the first ever in history to cross the sound barrier, moving faster than 1,000 kilometres per hour and creating a shock wave. Here is one more historical fact: On 12 July 1969, American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon. On 25 October 2009, Ben Ali became the first president in the history of Tunisia to win the election by getting a little less than 90% of the vote. This feat also generated a shock wave for the Tunisians, comparable to the Big Bang that marked the beginning of our universe 13.7 billion years ago. I do not know if everyone has realised the importance of this event. When you do realise it, you'd better understand the solemn warning the Tunisian president gave the day before the elections. On the eve of Saturday, 24 October 2009, in a televised address, he threatened the harshest of punishments for sceptics who placed the results of the following day’s elections in doubt. It is indeed unacceptable that a historical event of such importance could become the object of manipulation. The result announced a day and a half later had him at 89.62%, no questions asked. The significance of this was not understood by Magharebia’s correspondent in Tunis, who qualified this as a crushing victory. But, it is most surely the opposite of that. Remember that Ben Ali had himself re-elected in 1994 with 99.91% of the votes. His new victory is thus a reduction. We must also pay homage to the national organisations that called for Tunisians to vote for him, of which the Sports Association for Mentally Disabled Tunisians was one. And, the appeal was largely followed, with him getting 89.62%.
SIMO Posted 23 days ago
And we continue to call him “president”!? “King” or “emperor” would be a better fit for these eternal presidents, elected under universal suffrage and so on and so on. When are we going to start calling things by their real names??? Poor Africa! Poor democracy!
Anonymous Posted 8 days ago
Getting back to the last presidential election, which was won by Ben Ali, I did a thorough analysis of the results. According to a Magharebia correspondent in Tunis, 4.7 million voters voted. Ben Ali won 89.62% of the votes, so that means that 4,212,140 voters voted for Ben Ali. On the other hand, the governmental newspaper “La Presse” counted 4 million sheep. Even if all 100% of them were made to vote for Ben Ali, their number would remain lower than that which would ensure a presidential victory. It would thus be better to make the voters vote than the sheep, which go on baaing.
Exiled Posted 8 days ago
Having a King that the US approves of is not that bad after all. Who is the Crown Prince anyway?
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