As the Tunisian electoral commission yesterday announced the results obtained at the polling stations confirming the frontrunner Al-Nahda party – which had won 90 among 217 seats in the upcoming constitutional assembly – heavy clashes broke out in Sidi Bouzid, the southern city from where the uprising against the former regime had spread out to the rest of the country.
The clashes in Sidi Bouzid, where government buildings including the courthouse and army headquarters were assaulted with molotow cocktails and police forces pelted with stones, broke out after the electoral commission banned some of the over 20 elected candidates of the Popular Petition from taking their seats in the assembly. The electoral commission is accusing the Popular Petition party of having violated the rules regarding foreign financial support for the electoral campaign.
The stand-off continued today, albeit in less violent manner in Sidi Bouzid, from where it spread to other places in central Tunisia, where the ominous Popular Petition party had also turned out frontrunner. Following the ousting of the former regime, the Popular Petition party was founded by a London-based TV tycoon of Tunisian origin, Hashmi Hamdi, hailing from Sidi Bouzid.
Full Article: Arab Monitor – Sito di informazione dal mondo arabo.
