Tunisian Vote 2004 : Constitutional Council validates presidential candidacies
Tunisian women break new grounds in legislative race
Tunis - Exclusive-- Tunisian presidential and legislative elections have entered a new phase after the validation of the presidential candidacies by the Constitutional Council and the publication by the majority party, the RCD, of its lists of candidates to the legislative elections.
Both presidential and legislative elections are scheduled in Tunisia on Sunday October 24, 2004. But Tunisians abroad will cast their ballots in the vote for President, from October 16 to October 23, 2004.
The four validated candidacies are those of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Mohamed Bouchiha, secretary general of the Popular Unity Party (PUP), Mounir Beji, the president of the Social Liberal Party (PSL), Mohamed Ali Halouani ("Ettajdid Movement"-former communist).
The Council said it has reached its decision "after examining the documents pertaining to the various candidacies, following deliberations, and based on the provisions of the Constitutions and the Electoral Code."
The leaders of two other opposition parties --the Democratic Unionist Union (UDU) The Social Democratic Movement party (MDS)-were entitled to run for President. They chose instead o endorse the candidacy of the incumbent, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, to a new term in office.
If the validation of the presidential candidacies was expected by political observers in Tunis, the lists of the legislative candidates of the Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD) brought about a number of "surprises".
In conformity with the promise made by party chairman, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the RCD allocated no less than 25% of the slots on its legislative candidates to women.
Among the party's 152 legislative candidates, there are accordingly 38 women. That is a clearly higher figure than that in the 1999 elections when the majority party fielded 20 candidates.
Since the 1999 election, The RCD has held a solid majority of 80% of the seats in parliament, while five opposition parties shared the remaining seats (based on an provision in the election law allocating 20% of the seats to political parties which do not the majority of votes in the country's 26 electoral districts).
If the RCD, as expected, carries again the majority of votes in next elections, women will garner at least 20% of the seats in the Tunisian parliament. That would be the highest ratio of women in Tunisia's parliament since independence and one of the highest ratios in the world.
That would be in fact above the 15% average for women in parliaments around the world and higher than the averages in all regions of the world with the exception of the Nordic countries.
Tunisian columnists have not missed on the fact that no member of government has presented his candidacy to the legislative elections. "It is an expression of an obvious desire to separate executive and legislative functions", said a "Le Temps" commentator. The mass-circulation daily "Al Shourouq" calls this a "heavy-weight surprise and a "ground-breaking precedent".
It is the first-time since independence that members of government will not run for parliament.
"Echourouq" and "Assabah" note also that more than 60% of the RCD candidates are running for the first time ever to parliament.
"What this means," said a Tunis political analyst, "is the enlargement of political participation in general and a wider share by women in the decision making process. Two key elements of political reform in the Ben Ali agenda."
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