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On Monday, 21 November, after nearly a month of deliberations, leaders from the first, second and fourth largest political parties—Ennahda, the Congress for the Republic (CPR) and Ettakatol, respectively—announced their intention to work together as a coalition in Tunisia’s newly elected 217-member National Constituent Assembly (NCA).
As a block, these three political parties hold a significant majority in the assembly—139 seats in total— granting them the support they will need to make critical decisions concerning Tunisia’s future as the assembly drafts a new constitution and forms a transitional government.
Notably, however, is the exclusion of the third largest political party, Aridha Chaabia, from the power-sharing deal. One likely reason for this is the controversy that has surrounded the party since it suddenly appeared on the political scene shortly before Election Day.
On 28 October, Tunisia’s High Independent Electoral Commission (ISIE) had disqualified nine of the party’s 28 seats for supposedly violating campaign finance regulations. On 8 November, the Tunisian court of appeals reversed the decision and reinstated seven of the original nine seats, leaving them with 26 in total. Soon after, on 11 November, 12 of Aridha Chaabia’s elected members announced in a press release that they would like to be independent of the party, not just threatening the party’s already dwindling credibility, but essentially destroying the party’s base.
According to Tunisia’s leading political parties, as reported by the Think Africa Press, Aridha Chaabia has also been marginalized for its alleged ties to the former RCD party, in addition to the corruption allegations.
To be sure, Aridha Chaabia’s dubious political platform does not inspire confidence in the sincerity of the party’s stated goals, but as the third largest political party its outright exclusion should be addressed head-on by its opponents in the assembly.
Nevertheless, during the NCA’s opening session, on Tuesday, 22 November, assembly members elected Ettakatol president, Moustapha Ben Ja’afer, as speaker of the NCA with 145 votes.
Ben Ja’afer had been nominated speaker by the Ennahda-CPR-Ettakatol coalition, along with Hamadi Al-Jebali, secretary-general of Ennahda, for prime minister of the transitional government, and CPR’s Moncef Marzouki for the presidency, both of whom are still waiting for NCA approval.
NCA representatives have, however, elected Ms. Mehrezia Abidi of Ennahda and Mr. Arbi Ben Salah Abid of CPR as first and second deputy speakers of the NCA, respectively.
Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) representative, Maya Jribi, nominated herself for speaker of the constituent assembly in order to send a message that the era of one-party rule was over, she explained in her nomination speech, and that her party would take its role as the opposition very seriously. She emphasized that PDP representatives would strive to compliment the work of their colleagues by acting as a balancing power.
Ms. Jribi also acknowledged that, “Tunisians fought and died for us to be here in this very building. As we take these seats, we must all remember that we no longer represent our parties, but the Tunisian people.”
In an interview with The Majalla, President of ISIE, Kamal Jendoubi, noted the historic character of not just the assembly’s first meeting, but of the National Assembly building itself, which was the site of several momentous events in the country’s history: “With the memory of the demonstrations of 1938, the first constitutional assembly of 1955 and now the constituent assembly of 2011, then it is indeed a very historic moment and also a continuation of the history of our country,” Mr. Jendoubi told The Majalla.
Meanwhile, a growing number of Tunisians—close to 2,000 by Wednesday—have been gathering outside the National Assembly to demand everything from an end to torture to justice for the martyrs who were killed during the revolution that saw former president, Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, flee his country.
