TUNIS, 26 October 2004 — Several Tunisian opposition and rights leaders yesterday slammed weekend elections that saw incumbent President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali win a landslide victory for a fourth term as “surreal” and an insult to democratic standards.
“What we witnessed today is surreal,” said Mustapha Benjaafar, head of the Democratic Forum for Labor and Liberties (FDTL) that had called for a boycott of Sunday’s presidential and legislative vote.
“It was a parody in which the ruling power rewarded those that stood by it and sanctioned opponents.”
Benjaafar was reacting to final figures from the Tunisian Interior Ministry which said Ben Ali, who has been in power for 17 years, had been re-elected with 94.48 percent of the vote even though three other candidates stood against him.
Ben Ali’s party, the Democratic Constitutional Rally, also dominated the legislative elections winning 152 seats in the 189-seat Parliament. The remaining seats went to the opposition.
Nejib Chebbi, head of the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), which had also called for a boycott of the polls, described the elections as a “sham” and a re-enactment of previous polls that also saw the ruling party claim landslide victories. “The figures released are characteristic of a totalitarian and monolithic regime,” Chebbi said.
Ayachi Hammami, deputy head of the Ettajdid party that had fielded the only serious opposition candidate to Ben Ali, said the results in no way reflected reality.
“We contest these unimaginable results and the ridiculous score of 0.95 percent given to our candidate Mohamed Ali Halouani,” he said. “These results are an insult to Tunisians’ intelligence and represent a failure rather than a victory for the regime,” Hammami said, adding that the party was considering taking the matter before the Constitutional Council.
Mokhtar Trifi, head of the Tunisian League for Human Rights, echoed his comments. “We want things in this country to change,” Trifi said.
“We are living under an undemocratic regime, not to say a dictatorship, and these elections took place in extremely bad conditions.”
But Mohamed Bouchiha, another presidential candidate who stood for the Popular Unity Party and who essentially backed Ben Ali’s re-election bid, said he was satisfied with his score of 3.78 percent and the way the elections had unfolded.
The remaining presidential candidate, Mounir El-Beji of the Social Liberal Party, won 0.79 percent.
“The result is proof that we have an important place in politics and allowed us to break the 99 percent taboo linked to the outcome of previous elections,” said Bouchiha, who is related to the president’s wife.
Trifi and others have denounced widespread irregularities during the elections although the government insists the polls took place in full transparency.
Benjaafar said it was essential now for democratic parties to join together in order to present a common front. “What is most urgent now is for democratic forces to gather,” he said.
