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Tunisia elections: Fairness and Impartiality !!?

Categories: Middle East & North Africa, Tunisia, Breaking News, Elections

As predicted, president Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali won the Tunisian elections for a fifth term. What wasn't expected was that he would win with 89.62 per cent of the over all votes. The prediction was that he would garner more votes.

Ben Ali's ruling party, the Democratic Constitutional Rally, also fared as well. It won 161 of the 214 parliament seats. The remaining 53 seats were won by six different parties: Movement for Democratic Socialists, 16 seats; Party of People's Unity, led by Mohamed Bouchiha, 12 seats; Ahmed Inoubli's Union of Democratic Unionists, 9 seats; Social Liberal Party, 8 seats; Party of Greens for Progress, 6 seats and Ahmed Brahim’s Ettajdid Party, 2 seats.

The ruling party announced the fairness and the impartiality of the 2009 elections. But opposition leaders and bloggers have another opinion: they think that repressive acts and stifling controls on the election process have characterized the 2009 presidential and legislative elections in Tunisia on October 25, 2009.

Arabasta [1] ironically remarks :

مبروك عليكم ما عملتو
نتوجه بالشكر أولا إلى الشعب التونسي اللي قام بواجبو الإنتخابي في كنف الديموقراطية و الشفافية و الروح الرياضية البارح و إنتخب رئيس جديد للبلاد و مجلس نواب أخر لمدة خمسة سنين. الإختيار هذا كان محكم و مدروس و حتى واحد ما حاول يأثر على العباد و حتى من التلفزة و الصحافة كانو في المستوى و عطاو وقت متساوي لكل المترشحين و الأنصار متاعهم بقطع النظر عن
قربهم أو بعدهم عن السلطة

نتوجه بالشكر زادة لسيادة رئيس الجمهورية (لمدة 5 سنوات أخرى) و نعتذر عن عدم الدعوة و التصويت ليه و نستنكر و نشجب
التصرفات المشينة هذي أما نذكر أنو عمري ما شككت في نزاهة الإنتخابات و حريتها، فمن المعروف أنو في حالة تزوير الإنتخابات النتائج تكون من نوع 99،98% لكن الملاحظ النزيه يعرف أنو نتيجة 2009 ما تبعدش برشة على النسبة اللي ربح بيها شيراك في 2002 في فرنسا و لذا فالإنتخابات هذي إرتقت بينا إلى مصاف الدول العظمى و المتقدمة

Congratulations for what you did!
My thanks go first to Tunisian citizens who accomplished their electoral duties within the framework of democracy and transparency yesterday. They elected a new president for the country and a new parliament for another five years. This choice was wise and well thought of. No one has tried to influence the people and even the television channels and written media were neutral and guaranteed equal space for all the candidates and their supporters regardless of their relationship with the government.
My thanks go also to the president (for five more years) and I apologize for not supporting and not voting for him. I condemn this shameful behavior even though I recall the fact t that I have never questioned the neutrality and impartiality of the elections. As it is known that in case of fraud in the elections the results would be 98.99%. But an impartial observer knows that the 2009 results are not so different from those of 2002 in France when Chirac won the elections. This is why we can say that the elections elevated us to the rank of the developed and great nations.

Nakhlet Wed El Bey [2] (The palm tree of the Bey's river) wrote in Tunisian dialect :

أنا لا أشكك في نزاهة التمثيلية الإنتخابية

آش كان عليه لو كان حلّينا اللعب شويّة
و نزعنا الأكمام من أفوه المعارضة الحقيقية
لإنتصر الرئيس بسبعة و سبعين في المية
و انتزعنا من قلوب الرعايا النفاق و السكيزوفرينية
I am not questioning the impartiality and fairness of the charade that was the Tunisian elections.
But what if we were more flexible
And took the muzzles off the real opposition mouth
Thus the president would win with 77.7%
And we would remove the hypocrisy and schizophrenia from the citizens hearts

Some Thoughts from Tunisia [3], on his part, described what happened to him when he went to vote in the last hours of the day :

كيما قلت سبقني مرافقي للقاعة متاع الانتخاب وكيف دخلت انا نلقا الدنيا داخلة بعضها والجماعة يتغامزو عليه ويتلفوا في الجرّة (ما فاقوش اللي احنا مع بعضنا). اكهو فهمت آش صار: ضهر السيّد مازال في دارو وهوما ريڨلولو اموروا وانتخبوا في بلاصتوا وصححوا في الدفتر في بلاصتوا… آيا قالولو ما صار شيء برّا للخلوة اختار وموش لازم تصحح (الورقة كلها مصححة وماعادش فمة بلايص)… هاذا كلّو صاير وانا واقف نتفرّج!! السيّد مشى للخلوة وانا نسمع فيهم يْوَشْوْشُو ويحكيو بالسرقة بالحرف الواحد:
“هذا العمدة انتخب في بلاصتوا…!!!!”
As I said, my companion went ahead of me to the polling booth. When I entered the room, I saw those present confused and some people winking at each other and pretending as if nothing had happened (They did not realise that we were together). I soon understood everything: when the man was still in his house, they voted and signed instead of him.
Then they said to him: “Nothing has happened You can choose your candidates but you do not have to sign. (The whole paper was signed and there is no room for another signature).
All this happened while I was standing there. My companion went to vote and I heard them whispering:
The “Omda” (a community chief) voted instead of him.