TUNIS: Tunisia’s parliament looks deeply fractured after an election, with an exit poll showing the moderate Ennahda in first place with only 17.5 per cent of votes, meaning the coming period of government formation will likely prove long and hard.
Any government that does emerge will face the same challenges that have bedevilled its predecessors: High unemployment, inflation and public debt, a powerful union that resists change and foreign lenders who demand it.
The parliamentary divisions add to an already febrile political climate after voters last month sent an independent and a media mogul detained on corruption charges through to next week’s second round runoff of a separate presidential election.
Eight years after Tunisians rose up to bring in democracy, many have grown disillusioned by the inability of repeated governing coalitions to address a weak economy and poor public services.
Sunday’s vote was the third free parliamentary election in Tunisia since the 2011 revolution. But preliminary turnout figures showed only 41 per cent of registered voters cast their ballots.
“After the revolution, we were all optimistic and our hopes were high. But hope has been greatly diminished now as a result of the disastrous performance of the rulers and the former parliament,” said Basma Zoghbi, a worker for Tunis municipality.
The exit poll by Sigma Conseil showed the Heart of Tunisia party of Nabil Karoui, the detained media mogul, in second place with 15.6 per cent. It included Tunisia’s 199 domestic constituencies, but not the 18 overseas ones, and official results are not expected till Wednesday.
If confirmed, the result would leave Ennahda, a member of several coalitions since the revolution, needing to join with numerous rivals and independent members of parliament to gain a working majority. If it cannot do so within two months, the president can ask another party to try. If it also fails and the deadlock persists, there will be another election.
DIVIDED
Ennahda supporters drove through Tunis, the capital, honking their horns in celebration on Sunday night, and party leader Rached Ghannouchi addressed a rally.
A former political prisoner and exile, he was up for election for the first time and was voted into parliament, where he may seek the position of speaker. — Reuters
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