Ben Ali wins the Tunisian elections; Tunisian opposition protests
Tunisia, Politics, 10/26/2004

The democratic initiative which sponsored the candidate for the Presidential elections in Tunisia, Muhammad Ali Helwani, protested over the results of the Presidential elections that took place in Tunisia on Sunday.

The spokesman for the initiative was quoted as saying that the results of the elections constitutes an insult to the "intelligence " of the Tunisians. Official results showed the winning of the Tunisian President Zine al-Abidin Ben Ali by 94.48% of the votes.

Meantime, the secretary general of the progressive democratic party, Ahmad Najib al-Shabi -- whose party boycotted the election process -- deplored the results of the presidential and legislative elections, noting that a participation rate of 91.5% indicates cheating, as he alleged.

In the same context, the chairman of the democratic forum for freedoms ( the legitimate opposition party ) Mustafa Bin Jaafar said that the results of the general elections do not comply with the manifestation of the will of people.

Bin Jaafar criticized the amendment of the constitution which was approved by the referendum of 2002, which availed President Ben Ali -- who has been in authority since 17 years -- to be nominated for the fourth term of office as the constitution used to limit the number of terms to three.

As expected, Ben Ali was re-elected at a greater majority of 94.48% for a fourth five- year term of office, according to the official results announced yesterday ( Monday).

Muhammad Busheiha got 3.78%; Munir al-Naji got 0.79% while Muhammad Ali Helwani got 0.95% of the votes.

The Tunisian opposition announced that results of the voting was settled in advance for the interests of the president and his party, the Democratic constitutional coalition.

However, member of the Tunisian national monitor for monitoring the elections Samir al-Obeidi said in statements that these elections are considered a gain in the Tunisian experience despite the fact that there were certain problems during the voting and the selection of votes.

Previous Stories:
  Partial results indicate Ben Ali to win the Tunisian Presidential elections at 90%   (10/25/2004)
  Main opposition party in Tunisia withdraws from elections   (10/22/2004)
  Tunisian opposition wants presidential elections monitored, accuses government of confiscating freedoms   (10/18/2004)

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