TUNISIA ELECTIONS UPDATE: CANDIDATE BASHES GOT ON

C O N F I D E N T I A L TUNIS 000769 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/16/2019 TAGS: PGOV KDEM TS SUBJECT: TUNISIA ELECTIONS UPDATE: CANDIDATE BASHES GOT ON STATE TV, KEY PARTY DROPS, ACTIVIST COMMUNITY GLOOMY REF: A. TUNIS 760 ¶B. TUNIS 746 ¶C. TUNIS 741 ¶D. TUNIS 725 ¶E. TUNIS 694 Classified by Ambassador Gordon Gray for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. (C) One of the few dramatic moments in this pre-cooked election season came on the evening of October 12, when presidential contender Ahmed Brahim, used his half hour of "equal time" on state TV to launch an unprecedented excoriation of Ben Ali's government. Brahim cited the hegemony of a single party, the corruption and privilege of the few at the expense of most, and demanded the liberation of political prisoners. The GOT acted quickly to suppress distribution of transcripts or excerpts of Brahim's remarks, but the fact that he managed to say these things on state TV captured the imagination of opponents of Ben Ali's rule, otherwise beset by gloom and resignation. Meanwhile, the Progressive Development Party, led by another prominent Ben Ali critic, announced it was dropping out of the legislative elections, saying the elections had lost all credibility and that sustained government harassment and restrictions made its participation impossible. End summary. -------------- Gloom and Resignation... -------------- ¶2. (C) With just nine days left until Tunisia's first national elections in four years, the capital is plastered with electoral banners and posters. The overwhelming majority are in purple and red, the colors of the Ben Ali 2009 campaign and those of the ruling RCD. Giant billboards portraying Ben Ali and extolling his virtues are omnipresent. The general public attitude in Tunis, as well as the provinces appears to be one of indifference and resignation (reftels). ¶3. (C) A group of civil society activists hosted by the Pol-Econ Counselor on October 14 expressed gloom and resignation. "Ben Ali will be declared the winner by at least 94 percent, and 85 percent turnout will be declared," declared Khamais Chammari, a prominent and long-standing government critic. Ben Ali became a "President for Life" when he rammed through a constitutional amendment in 2002 extending the number of allowable presidential terms, he added. Government institutions have been hijacked by the regime and are incapable of serving the people, several attendees agreed. Activist and opposition parliamentary candidate Fethi Touzri lamented the public apathy and indifference generated by the Ben Ali government's iron grip on power. "My children, and all their friends, know all the candidates in the French elections, and all the candidates in the U.S. elections, but nothing about Tunisian candidates," he remarked. To them, the Tunisian candidates and the entire political system were utterly irrelevant, he observed. -------------- ...Interrupted for One Poignant Moment -------------- ¶4. (C) What will likely prove to be the most dramatic moment of the 2009 elections came on the evening of October 12, when Ahmed Brahim, presidential candidate for the leftist El-Tajdid (Renewal) Party was granted a half hour of "equal time" to make his case on State TV. In tones previously unheard of on State TV, Brahim lashed out at the Ben Ali government, pleading with the people to break free of the "one party mentality" and state hegemony. In a swipe at the well known corruption of Ben Ali's family and in-laws, Brahim called for the re-establishment of fair competition and elimination of fraud and nepotism. He bemoaned the poverty and unemployment which besets Tunisian youth while "those close to power" amass fortunes. Brahim demanded the release of political prisoners, and singled out those detained during unemployment demonstrations in the impoverish interior mining region of Gafsa. Brahim also demanded the restoration of an independent judiciary and a free media. ¶5. (C) The GOT acted quickly to contain the "damage" from these remarks. The government seized from a printing house tens of thousands of glossy brochures containing excerpts from the Brahim speech, Tajdid affiliate Khemais Chammari told us. The government also seized the current issue of Tajdid's weekly newspaper which reported on Brahim's appearance. Still, many leading government critics were elated that Brahim had actually said these things on State TV. Retired Ambassador Ahmed Ounais told the Ambassador at an October 13 lunch that the Brahim broadcast had been unprecedented in Tunisia's political history and that Brahim had managed to inspire the Tunisian people by summing up their core grievances against the Ben Ali government. These views were echoed at the Embassy's civil society roundtable on October 14. Feminist Bochra Bel Haj Hamida said Brahim's broadcast had proven to Tunisians that, despite all the obstacles, credible voices of opposition still existed in the country. ¶6. (SBU) All over the capital, electoral authorities have erected placards with spaces for the four presidential candidates. Ben Ali occupies one spot; Mohammed Bouchiha, his wife's maternal cousin, occupies another; Ahmed Inoubli, who had endorsed Ben Ali earlier in 2009 occupies a third, but the space reserved for Ahmed Brahim is blank on every placard. -------------- PDP Throws in the Towel -------------- ¶7. (C) On October 10, Maya Jeribi, Secretary-General of the Progressive Development Party (PDP),one of two legal parties besides Tajdid that mounts serious and sustained criticism of the Ben Ali government, announced it was withdrawing from the legislative elections. Already disqualified from the Presidential race, the PDP had fielded legislative candidate slates in each of Tunisia's 26 provinces, but electoral authorities had rejected more than half of them on (spurious) technical grounds. Representatives of the PDP, as well as other opposition parties, told emboffs that electoral authorities had only accepted candidate lists in areas where they had almost no public support. PDP candidates still cleared to run reported government restrictions and police harassment made campaigning impossible and Jeribi's announcement explained that the party had concluded that the 2009 elections had lost "all traces of national character" and essentially constituted a charade aimed at legitimizing the Ben Ali government. GRAY