Tunisia opposition wins quarter of Parliament seats

2009-10-27

In elections held on Sunday, opposition candidates won a record-breaking 53 seats in Tunisia's Parliament.

By Mona Yahia and Jamel Arfaoui for Magharebia in Tunis – 27/10/09

[Fethi Belaid/AFP/Getty Images] Opposition parties made record gains in Tunisia's legislative elections.

Opposition parties made strong advances in legislative elections held on Sunday (October 25th), capturing an unprecedented 53 of Parliament's 214 seats.

The ruling Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD) of incumbent President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali obtained an expected majority, winning 161 seats, though only capturing 31% of the popular vote. Ben Ali himself was elected to his fifth five-year term with 89.62% of the votes in the presidential election held the same day.

The opposition's previously unheard-of wins drew positive reactions from some commentators.

"What matters is that the Tunisian Parliament, for the first time in history, will allocate a quarter of its seats to the opposition," Tunisian journalist Kamal Ben Youness commented in the local press after the elections. "This is quite significant, especially if we link it to the electoral programme of President Ben Ali, in which the first two sections deal with expanding the scope of freedoms."

The Movement of Socialist Democrats won the most seats with 16, followed by the People's Unity Party, which netted eight. The Green Party for Progress came away with six seats, while the Ettajdid Movement only managed to secure two. Independent candidates and other opposition parties, such as the Democratic Forum for Work and Freedoms, and the Progressive Democratic Party, failed to win any seats.

In 2004, opposition parties only managed to win enough votes to secure 37 seats, a slight improvement over 1999's results, in which their candidates won 34 seats. The size of the parliamentary body increased from 141 seats to 214 seats after the 2004 elections.

"The election is a remarkable milestone in democratic practices," Interior Minister Rafiq Haj Kassem said in a press conference on Monday. He cited statistics showing the number of Tunisian voters had increased by a million. He attributed this growth to the lowering of the voting age to 18, and to the regular review of voter rolls.

According to his statistics, voter turnout was strong at 89.4%, with an estimated 5.2 million Tunisians heading to the polls and an additional 300,000 expatriate Tunisians mailing in their ballots. No complaints were filed in the compiling and sorting of ballots, Kassem added.

Kassem hailed the turnout rate among women. "At 18%, [it] represents yet another successful development in Tunisian elections," he said.

Responding to criticism from international media outlets that questioned the validity of the Tunisian elections, Kassem insisted that the contest had been fair.

"Progress cannot be stopped by the barking of scoundrels," he said.

Some Arab media lauded the election. "I think what took place during these elections surely indicates that Tunisia is standing on the threshold of a brilliant future," said Jordanian commentator Abdallah El Gat.

Celebrations were under way at RCD headquarters well before official election returns were announced on Sunday. Observers expect crowds to take to the streets either Tuesday or Wednesday to celebrate the victory of the party and President Ben Ali.