Ruling party in Tunisia wins an overwhelming majority

The ruling Democratic Constitutional Coalition party has won a great majority in the municipal elections which took place on Sunday at the expense of four small parties so as its control on authority was increased.

In preliminary results, the ministry of the interior said that the constitutional coalition party which is led by Zine al-Abidin Ben Ali got 94% of the votes, while the four moderate licensed party and one independent list got 260 seats (6%) seats out of 4366 seats.

A source at the ministry said that the rate of participation in the elections exceeded 80% out of 2.8 million voters who elected candidates from 354 lists of which 89 for the opposition to renew 264 municipal councils in all parts of Tunisia.

The main opposition accused the authorities of preventing 200 candidates in the name of the Democratic Coalition For Citizenship from launching the elections, stressing that the authorities had threatened or bribed to achieve this aim.

These municipal elections are carried out 6 months after the presidential and legislative elections which were held in Tunisia in which the ruling party and President Ben Ali won a majority of 98% of the votes to assume the presidency of the country fifth four-year term of office.