She said that her party had been “placed badly” and would be in opposition in the constituent assembly that will rewrite Tunisia’s constitution ahead of legislative elections in a year’s time. She said she accepted the decision of the Tunisian people and bowed before their choice.
Despite Ennahda’s promises not to promote Shariah law or undo women’s rights, the PDP and other secular parties had campaigned against it saying it had a secret agenda to impose Shariah law in Tunisia.
Earlier in the day, Ennahda claimed that it had won at least 40 percent of the vote. However, by early afternoon, officials from the PDP told Arab News that the party which compares itself to Turkey’s AKP had come a commanding first and with its ally, the Congress for the Republic (CPR), would have more than 110 seats in the 217-seat assembly, an outright majority.
The PDP was expected to come a poor fourth with between 15 and 20 seats. Second, they said, was Ettakatol, an ally of the PDP, with between 25 and 40 seats. Third was the CPR with between 30 and 20 seats.
Despite the absence of any formal announcement, the news of Ennhada’s victory was common knowledge by late afternoon and party supporters took to the streets of the capital, Tunis, with hooting vehicles to celebrate.
Victory means that Ennahda will be able to both appoint a new president and government and rewrite the constitution the way it wants. “All the cards are now in Ennahda’s hands,” said Nasreddine Darghouth, who had failed to win a seat for the PDP in Manouba, a suburb of Tunis. There as almost everywhere else in the country, Ennahda topped the vote.
That means that Tunisia is headed to become a parliamentary democracy rather than a presidential one. Ennahda wants Parliament to be in control with a president appointed by it playing a purely symbolic role, as in Germany and Italy. The aim is to ensure that political power is never again concentrated in the hands of one man and those around him. The PDP had wanted a system similar to that of the United States with an executive president and a legislature able to challenge and hold him to account.
The elections had been a “great disappointment for the PDP,” said Darghouth. But that was democracy. “We respect the result.”
The immediate issue for Tunisia now is who becomes president and prime minister. As well as rewriting the constitution, the assembly will have the power to vote in new laws and budgets as well as appoint a head of state. He can appoint a new prime minister.
If Ennahda were to win an absolute majority, it would have the power to go it alone. However, it had said that it would not enter government and would appoint a technocrat Cabinet. It may still do so. However, it is widely believed that it will now pull together a coalition government with the CPR with whom it will have a commanding majority in the assembly — possibly even with others, including the PDP.
“The political and economic programs of all the main parties, including the PDP and Ennahda, were the same,” said Darghouth — a social welfare model. However, the main reason he thinks there could be a wider coalition is because legislative elections will be held in a year’s time. “The new government will be faced with so many economic issues to resolve, notably poverty and unemployment,” he said.
Around one million of the country’s 10.4 million population are unemployed. The problems will not be resolved in so short a time and Ennahda will not want to take the blame, he said. It will want to spread it between all parties.
Possibly reflecting this, Mustafa ben Jaafar, leader of the second largest party, Ettaktol, is being widely tipped on Monday as Ennahda’s choice of president to replace Fouad Mebazaa who has held the post since January when former leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali resigned and fled.
Evidence that Ennahda is only too well aware that the economy could be a poison cup came in one of its first comments on its victory Monday. “We would like to reassure our trade and economic partners, and all actors and investors, we hope very soon to have stability and the right conditions for investment in Tunisia," said executive party member Abdelhamid Jlassi.
Darghouth has a second reason for thinking that Ennahda will go for a broad coalition. He quoted senior Ennahda member Noureddine Bhiri, who topped the poll in the capital’s suburb of Ben Arous, as saying that the new government would have to deal with economic realities and that it would mean assembling together a government of national unity.
Despite the earlier attacks on Ennahda for its Islamic credentials, Darghouth was confident about the future. “They may be my political adversaries and we’ll be fighting each other again in a year’s time, but I’ve spoken to them. They’re also democrats.”
A PDP colleague of his was equally confident about the future. “Tunisia is not going to be another Afghanistan or Yemen. There will be no going back,” he said. The people will not allow it. Democracy has now been firmly established, he said. "Regardless of who came first in Sunday’s elections, we all won.”
