So who is the next Western puppet to rule Tunisia?
"Tunisians skeptical on eve of historic election" by Paul Schemm | Associated Press October 26, 2014
TUNIS — In a raucous cafe in a Tunis slum, men talked in loud voices and paid little attention to the politicians debating on the television mounted on the wall.
That's me. Sorry.
Qais Jebali swiftly made espressos behind the bar and explained why no one in the gritty neighborhood of Tadamon cared about the upcoming elections.
I've tried to do the same.
‘‘We’ve had five governments since 2011 and nothing has changed on the ground,’’ he said, arranging the cups of strong black coffee on a tray with a bowl of sugar. ‘‘The poor people don’t trust the government because they are marginalized, harassed by police, and don’t have money to pay bribes.’’
Here, here!
Outside, members of the National Guard in bulletproof vests and carrying assault rifles waved cars through a dilapidated traffic circle. Security was heightened because a standoff with suspected militants was taking place just a few miles away.
It's the same damn playbook for rule and control everywhere!
On Sunday, Tunisians will vote for their first five-year Parliament since they overthrew dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, marking the end of the democratic transition that they alone among the prodemocracy Arab Spring uprisings have managed to achieve. Now, many Tunisians are expressing disillusionment with democracy.
They say it has not brought prosperity and seems largely to involve squabbling politicians and attacks by Islamic militants, raising fears that many may not turn out to vote in a country that has been described as the best chance for democracy in the Arab world.
How did Tunisians get their hands on a Boston Globe?
‘‘There is a depression after these three years of seeing rulers lying, not keeping their word, not doing or not even trying to do what they promised to do, and especially, in the midst of a dire economic situation,’’ said Chawki Gaddes, a political analyst at Tunis University.
Try decades of it.
And you wonder why I type what I do?
In 2011, the moderate Islamist Ennahda Party dominated elections and formed a coalition government with two secular parties. During the next two years, the country was buffeted by punishing inflation, attacks by radical Islamists, assassinations, and the daily spectacle of squabbling politicians in a country accustomed to a half century of one-party rule.
Yeah, I noted that paragraph and remember that Ennahda was a moderate Muslim movement (admittedly backed by Saudi-Qatar money and nowhere near pure) that wasn't allowed to govern because you basically can't have that in the Muslim world when it comes to globe-kicking, war-making neo-cons and their goals for world domination.
The whole Arab Spring (catchy name indicates intelligence agency initiative; Thailand's recent coup never got a snappy name) was an excuse to replace stale dictators and then prove those Muslims can't govern themselves, dammit! Thus we must install strong leaders along the lines of royal sheiks and elites to manage the societies until they are ready.
As the government and opposition deadlocked amid the rising political acrimony — and against the backdrop of a military coup against the Islamist government in nearby Egypt — the Islamist-led government stepped down at the end of 2013 in favor of new cabinet of technocrats.
That's another one, and I really have to get back to why Morsi was driven out. Been a long time since I blogged about Egypt.
Polling from the Pew Research center in Tunisia has seen support for democracy as the best form of government drop from 63 percent in 2012 to 48 percent, while the demand for a strong leader rose from 37 percent to 59 percent.
Uh-oh. You know what you get then (except it's a beard now, and not a short mustache).
The disaffection is particularly strong among young people, the group that so spectacularly took to the streets to fight Ben Ali’s riot police and force him out of power three years ago.
You kids are the same the world over!
In the neighborhoods like Tadamon, it’s difficult to find any young people registered to vote.
Not good for Obummer and the Democraps.
According to Mouheb Garoui of the election monitoring group I Watch, some 60 percent are undecided just days before the election.
‘‘There were so many promises in 2011 and now the same promises are being made in 2014,’’ he said. ‘‘There is discontent and apathy among youth.’’
We have a whole electorate feeling that way over her.
The Islamist-led government managed to lay down many of building blocks of a new political system and, together with the opposition, write a constitution described as one of the most progressive in the region. Yet the turmoil and deadlock kept away foreign aid, tourism, and investment.
Like I said, never allowed to succeed.
‘‘The question of the economy was neglected in the three years of the revolution — it was years of political wrangling and political transition,’’ said Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa, the interim leader who succeeded the Islamist government.
He says his administration, which succeeded the Islamist government, has begun the necessary economic reforms to stabilize the country. Under his watch, foreign aid has flowed back to the country.
Do I even have to type it?
In the past year, security forces have also carried out a attacks to dismantle suspected militant cells, most recently Friday when a counterterrorism raid in the suburbs resulted in the deaths of six alleged militants — five of them gun-toting women, according to police.
!!!!!!!
The party most hoping to capitalize on voters’ disaffection is Nida Tunis (Tunisia’s Call) run by charismatic — albeit 87-year-old — politician Beji Caid Essebsi, who is clearly trying to evoke the good old days of an educated, modern Tunisia without the dictatorship.
Stay away from him, kids.
Formed after the revolution, the party brings together trade unionists, businessmen, and more than a few politicians from Ben Ali’s time that are united by little more than opposition to the Islamists. The main message of their campaign has been that their party represents progress in the face of what they call the reactionary policies of Ennahda.
By going back to the good old days?
‘‘We needed a party to bring back the middle class that was pushed to the side by the aggression of the Islamists and their beliefs,’’ said Mustapha Ben Ahmed, on the party’s executive bureau. ‘‘This historical bloc can restore the prestige of the state.’’
I'm wondering how I can get my middle class back.
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Related:
"Tunisians voted Sunday for their first five-year Parliament since they overthrew their dictator in the 2011 revolution that launched the Arab Spring, with the main secular party declaring an early victory over the once-dominant Islamists.
Although official results will not be released before Wednesday, the Nida Tunis party said it came in first place. The Islamist Ennahda Party had not conceded late Sunday. Exit polls conducted by the private Tunisia-based Sigma Conseil institute gave Nida Tunis 37 percent of the 217-seat body, with just 26 percent to Ennahda.
Tunisia is widely seen as having the best chance for democracy in the Arab world, but the past 3½ years have been marked by political turmoil, terrorism, and a faltering economy."
Speaking of terrorism:
"Tunisian forces raid home, kill six suspects" Associated Press October 25, 2014
TUNIS — Tunisian counterterrorism forces stormed a home in a Tunis suburb on Friday after a 24-hour standoff, killing six people and seriously wounding a child, an official said.
Interior Ministry spokesman Mohammed Ali Aroui described the six women and one man killed as ‘‘terrorists’’ and said they had opened fire on the government forces. This is the first reported case of women taking up arms against the government in Tunisia.
He said the women were planning to travel to Syria to join extremist groups and that one of them held the child in her arms while shooting at the soldiers.
Yeah, okay, whatever you say.
Another child was lightly wounded in the confrontation.
The mother of the children and another man were arrested.
Aroui said the existence of the hideout in the suburb of Oued Elil was discovered after the father of the children was arrested with another man in the southern city of Kebili on Thursday while carrying assault rifles and planning terrorist attacks.
Tunisia is holding a key election Sunday, hoping to complete its democratic transition after the 2011 overthrow of longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. There have been warnings by the government that terrorists would seek to disrupt the vote.
Can you guys flip the f***ing record over, please?
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Related: ISIS is in Tunisia
Also see: Arab Spring Benefited Israel
Yeah, funny how all that worked out.
"Botswana’s incumbent president won a second term after his party dominated its 11th successive election. President Ian Khama, the Botswana Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, has been the country’s leader since 2009. The country’s newly elected Parliament affirmed his new term after his party won a majority of seats in the national election."
Maybe Mozambique's vote will make me feel better about African elections:
"Mozambique vote counting stops amid fraud worries" | Associated Press October 21, 2014
MAPUTO, Mozambique — The national elections commission said Monday that vote counting in Mozambique’s northwestern province has stopped because of possible fraud with more than 60 percent of votes counted.
No, doesn't make me feel better and I now view all elections as fraudulent (except those in Gaza and Iran).
The commission received more results sheets than there were polling stations in the province, a report released by a watchdog group said.
The Center for Public Integrity, a Mozambican anticorruption organization, said 234 result sheets were delivered although there were only 178 polling stations in the Tete province’s capital Tete City. The increased number of results sheets could mean that some votes were counted twice.
Sometimes they do that for newspaper readership, too. You buy a subscription and they count the free computer access, too.
A ballot coding system should have prevented this and the commission said it is investigating the possible duplication.
Provisional results show that the ruling Frelimo party leads with 62 percent of the vote, while the official opposition Renamo has 32 percent of the votes counted so far.
Well....
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NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Secular party wins Tunisia elections" by Paul Schemm | Associated Press October 28, 2014
TUNIS — Tunisia’s main secular opposition party claimed victory Monday over once-dominant Islamists in the country’s historic parliamentary elections.
On the face of it, it looks good; however, there is a very key paragraph below that validates my analysis.
Citing exit polls and partial results from the election commission, the Nida Tunis (Tunis Calls) party said it won more seats than any other party in the 217-member Parliament.
The election, in which 60 percent of Tunisia’s 5.2 million registered voters participated, will produce the nation’s first five-year Parliament after the country’s 2011 Arab Spring revolt and has already been widely praised around the world.
‘‘This milestone in Tunisia’s transition to democracy exemplifies why Tunisia remains a beacon of hope, not only to the Tunisian people, but to the region and the world,’’ said Secretary of State John F. Kerry, echoing President Obama’s praise from the day before.
The peaceful and orderly manner in which the elections unfolded on Sunday was also lauded by the European Union, the United Nations, and France.
This glowing review of the election and its contrast to what I've read above is stark. You will see why this is the spin on it in a bit.
Tunisia has been a rare bright spot across the Middle East and North Africa, where the hopes brought by the prodemocracy uprisings of 2011 were dashed with Libya being controlled by battling militias, Egypt’s elected government ousted by a military coup, and Syria’s dissolution into civil war.
Well, it was the U.S. that is responsible for the Syrian situation, that approved of the Egyptian coup, and is responsible for smashing Libya. But hopes were dashed, stale dictators were removed, and somehow nothing changed or things got worse, and now Tunisia is the lone bright spot somehow.
Only Tunisia, despite many ups and downs, looks like it might produce a functioning democracy.
If the exit polls that give Nida Tunis 37 percent of the seats and 26 percent to the moderate Islamist Ennahda Party are confirmed by the vote count, it would be a dramatic reversal for the Islamists, which had ruled the country for two stormy years in a coalition with two other liberal parties.
Ennahda acknowledged that Nida Tunis ‘‘probably’’ won more seats than any other party. ‘‘We have a picture forming and we are not as optimistic as last night,’’ said Yusra Ghannouchi, a spokeswoman for the party.
A sample of polling station results by the independent Mourakiboun observer group gave similar results as the exit polls, with Nida Tunis at least nine points ahead of Ennahda.
And here is the paragraph you have been waiting for:
Created as an explicit counterbalance to the Islamists after their 2011 election victory, Nida Tunis includes businessmen, trade unionists, and many politicians from the deposed dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s government.
The good old days!!!!
They seek to evoke the heritage of Tunisia’s first postindependence president, Habib Bourguiba, with his focus on education and modernization, while playing down the one-party state that Tunisia had been for half a century.
I decide to play that up a little.
The poor Tunisians, back under U.S. boot.
Since many of its members served in prerevolution governments, the party claims to have the necessary experience to solve Tunisia’s economic problems and bring stability.
You know, like they did before you guys revolted.
During the two years that the Ennahda-led government held power, the country was battered by rising inflation, a weak economy, and the growing power of radical Islamists who mounted attacks on politicians and soldiers.
Like I said, they were sabotaged for several reasons.
Although the Islamist-led government eventually stepped down at the end of 2013 in favor of a technocratic Cabinet, it did oversee the passing of a new constitution described as the most progressive in the region.
But for some reason, never liked with an "Islamist insurgency" to boot.
Whenever I see "Islamist" in my propaganda pre$$ I think intelligence agency operation now -- because that is what it likely is. The whole damn thing is staged and scripted theater with self-created ghosts that are everywhere yet nowhere.
The parliamentary election was the second in Tunisia since the uprising that overthrew Ben Ali in 2011 and set off the Arab Spring. Presidential elections are scheduled for next month.
Two elections and they brought the bastard's government back already?
Looks like a FAILURE to ME!
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