Tunisians go to the polls for first time
Source: Agencies |
October 24, 2011, Monday
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TUNISIAN voters poured into polling stations to vote yesterday in their country's first free election, 10 months after a vegetable seller set fire to himself in an act of protest that started the Arab Spring uprisings.
The leader of an Islamist party predicted to win the biggest share of the vote was heckled outside a polling station by people shouting "terrorist" - highlighting tensions between Islamists and secularists that are also being felt in other countries touched by the Arab Spring.
Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation, prompted by his despair at poverty and government repression, provoked mass protests which forced President Zine al-Abidine to flee the country. This in turn inspired revolts in Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria.
Rachid Ghannouchi, leader of the moderately Islamist Ennahda party, took his place in the queue at a polling station in the El Menzah district of the capital.
"This is a historic day," he said, accompanied by his wife and daughter. "Tunisia was born today. The Arab Spring was born today."
But as he emerged from the polling station, people shouted at him: "Degage" French for "Go away," and "You are a terrorist and an assassin. Go back to London."
Ghannouchi, who spent 22 years in exile in the UK, has associated his party with the moderate Islamism of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. He has said he will not try to impose Muslim values.
But the party's rise is worrying Tunisia's secularists, who believe their country's liberal, modernist traditions are now under threat.
Across Tunisia, queues stretching hundreds of meters formed outside polling stations from early in the morning for an election which could set the template for other Middle Eastern states emerging from the Arab Spring.
The level of voter interest was never seen during Ben Ali's rule. Then, only a trickle of people turned out for elections because they knew the result was predetermined.
People in the queues took photographs on their mobile phones to mark the occasion.
"This is the first time I have voted," said Karima Ben Salem, 45, at a polling station in the Lafayette area of central Tunis.
"I have asked the boys to make their own lunch. I don't care. Today I am not on duty. Or rather, I am on duty for my country," she said.
There were long lines of voters in Sidi Bouzid, the birthplace of the Tunisian revolution and Mohamed Bouazizi's home town.
Sara Naji, a secondary school teacher, said: "It is the first time I have voted because it is the first time I feel my vote is safe. We suffered a lot from pessimism and frustration but now we are building a new life."
Yesterday's vote is for an assembly that will draft a new constitution to replace the one Ben Ali manipulated to entrench his power. It will also appoint an interim government and set elections for a new president and parliament.
The leader of an Islamist party predicted to win the biggest share of the vote was heckled outside a polling station by people shouting "terrorist" - highlighting tensions between Islamists and secularists that are also being felt in other countries touched by the Arab Spring.
Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation, prompted by his despair at poverty and government repression, provoked mass protests which forced President Zine al-Abidine to flee the country. This in turn inspired revolts in Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria.
Rachid Ghannouchi, leader of the moderately Islamist Ennahda party, took his place in the queue at a polling station in the El Menzah district of the capital.
"This is a historic day," he said, accompanied by his wife and daughter. "Tunisia was born today. The Arab Spring was born today."
But as he emerged from the polling station, people shouted at him: "Degage" French for "Go away," and "You are a terrorist and an assassin. Go back to London."
Ghannouchi, who spent 22 years in exile in the UK, has associated his party with the moderate Islamism of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. He has said he will not try to impose Muslim values.
But the party's rise is worrying Tunisia's secularists, who believe their country's liberal, modernist traditions are now under threat.
Across Tunisia, queues stretching hundreds of meters formed outside polling stations from early in the morning for an election which could set the template for other Middle Eastern states emerging from the Arab Spring.
The level of voter interest was never seen during Ben Ali's rule. Then, only a trickle of people turned out for elections because they knew the result was predetermined.
People in the queues took photographs on their mobile phones to mark the occasion.
"This is the first time I have voted," said Karima Ben Salem, 45, at a polling station in the Lafayette area of central Tunis.
"I have asked the boys to make their own lunch. I don't care. Today I am not on duty. Or rather, I am on duty for my country," she said.
There were long lines of voters in Sidi Bouzid, the birthplace of the Tunisian revolution and Mohamed Bouazizi's home town.
Sara Naji, a secondary school teacher, said: "It is the first time I have voted because it is the first time I feel my vote is safe. We suffered a lot from pessimism and frustration but now we are building a new life."
Yesterday's vote is for an assembly that will draft a new constitution to replace the one Ben Ali manipulated to entrench his power. It will also appoint an interim government and set elections for a new president and parliament.
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