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| Africa North |
| Islamists lose popular trust |
| 2012-12-15 |
| [Magharebia] Street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire on December 17th, 2010 and ignited the Arab Spring. Two years gone, people are now asking whether their lives are better under Islamist rule. Recent polls suggest that Tunisians today are less enthusiastic about political Islam than they were a year ago, when they elected the Ennahda party. However, if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... the ruling Islamist movement still holds a plurality in opinion surveys. Young Tunis resident Moez Jabli says that the Tunisians who voted for Ennahda counted on moderate Islam and a safe state. "Instead, they got a lack of security, threats to freedom, and a failure to achieve the demands of the people, especially youth," he tells Magharebia. "This explains the break in trust between Tunisians and Ennahda," he said. However, it's easy to be generous with someone else's money... the ruling Islamist movement still holds a plurality in opinion surveys. Ennahda made plenty of attractive promises during the election campaign. The movement promised to create 400,000 jobs within five years. It also promised to defend the modernist identity of the country and maintain the 1956 "Code of Personal Status", which protected women's rights. But the party is paying a price for letting down its voters. One year after winning the most seats in the new Constituent Assembly, Ennahda has lost 31% of its electorate. A November survey conducted by Tunis-based marketing and public opinion research institute "3C Etudes" found that 31.4 per cent of Tunisians would vote for Ennahda if legislative elections were to be held now. That figure was estimated at 48 per cent in April. The poll also found that the worst approval rating for the governing party came from respondents in Sidi Bouzid. Indeed, Ennahda realised its lowest approval score of any community in the country - just 19% - in the cradle of the revolution. And when asked their choices for president, only one per cent of poll respondents chose Ennahda party leader Rachid Ghannouchi. Ousted President-for-Life Zine El Abidine Ben Ali ...who departed by popular demand in January, 2011, precipitating the Arab Spring... ranked higher, with 1.2 per cent. In an interview with al-Hayat last September, Ghannouchi attributed Ennahda's decline in popularity to the facts of governing. "This is power," he told the paper. "It is known that power is an element of decay, and there is a difference between those who talk about high ideals and those who live up to them." "There is a difference between those who are asked to deliver a speech and those who are required to provide the people with food, security and medication," the Ennahda leader added. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Insh'Allah... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2012-12-15 17:31 |
| #1 Recent polls suggest that Tunisians today are less enthusiastic about political Islam than they were a year ago, when they elected the Ennahda party. You broke it, you bought it. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2012-12-15 09:26 |