CIAO DATE: 01/2015
December 2014
The International Crisis Group’s latest briefing, Tunisia’s Elections: Old Wounds, New Fears, analyses the deep anxieties of the country’s political forces and charts a path toward a national compromise. As the region is increasingly polarised, the stakes of the Tunisian presidential election, scheduled for 21 December, are high. Incumbent President Moncef Marzouki, of the Congress for the Republic party, and his opponent Beji Caid Essebsi, a former prime minister and founder of the Nida Tounes party, regard their confrontation as an extension of the regional clash between revolutionary forces (often including Islamists) and counter-revolutionary forces (including elements of the regimes that were shaken or overthrown in 2011). But the chasm between the two camps runs deeper, dividing social classes, pitting established elites from Tunis and the east coast against emerging elites from the south and hinterland, and reviving political conflicts dating to the early independence era.
Resource link: Elections en Tunisie: vieilles blessures, nouvelles craintes [PDF] - 611K