Lefèvre, Raphaël. "Tunisia: A Fragile Political Transition." The Journal of North African Studies, Vol.20, No.2 (2015): 307-311.

Lefèvre, Raphaël. "Tunisia: A Fragile Political Transition." The Journal of North African Studies, Vol.20, No.2 (2015): 307-311.

• The relative success of Tunisian democracy has been lauded by Western countries, including its peaceful and democratic transition of power in 2014 from Ennahda to Nidaa Tounes (307).
• The election of Nidaa Tounes raises issues for the future of peace and democracy in Tunisia, as the new government has a number of figures from the Ben Ali dictatorship and is likely to increase the intensity of the anti-Islamist campaign, both concerning many Islamists in Ennahda and other opposition parties (307).
• Particular fear is concentrated around Beji Caid Essebsi, the Nidaa Tounes presidential candidate, who was a senior member of President Ben Ali's Rassemblement Constitutionnel Démocratique for years. His victory in the first round of voting sparked protests in southern Tunisia over concerns that regime loyalists were returning to power (308).
• Other connections between Nidaa Tounes and members of the dictatorship are also present: his main political advisor is Mohammed Ghariani, formerly secretary-general of the Rassemblement and imprisoned from 2011 to 2013; businessman Faouzi Elloumi was reported giving millions to the party; and Nidaa Tounes may have also received financial support from Gulf monarchies opposed to the Muslim Brotherhood (308-309).
• The 2014 general elections were a major defeat for the 'troika' of Ennahda, the conservative Islamist party; Conges Pour la Republique; and Ettakatol, who had been governing since 2012. These parties lost almost all their seats in 2014, as Tunisians blamed them for continuing high levels of corruption, the failure to implement major social and political reforms, poor management of the economy, and not coping with large numbers of refugees coming into the country from Libya (308).
• Nidaa Tounes is a secularist party founded to organize secularists and independent politicians into a bloc that could replicate the organization of Islamists in Ennahda. There is significant ideologically disagreement within the party, especially over economic issues (308).
• Nidaa Tounes is commonly associated with its leader, former prime minister between 2011 and 2012, and current [2015] presidential candidate, Beji Caid Essebsi. He is a unifying force within the party, but is already 88 and the party's future after his death is uncertain (308).
• Tunisian elections in 2012 and 2014 both suffered from low levels of youth turnout, averaging 50% in 2012 -- 20% lower than the middle-aged population -- and only 20% total in 2014. Some of the disillusioned youth not voting in elections are turning to militancy instead (309).
• Declining turnout is particularly severe among young Islamists, who are disappointed that Ennahda abandoned attempts to insert references to sharia into the Tunisian constitution and that Ennahda voted down a bill in 2014 that would have prevented members of the Ben Ali government from participating in politics. Both were seen as betrayals of Ennahda's principles (309).
• Originally founded by Islamists linked to Ennahda to protect neighborhoods from violence during the 2011 revolution, the Leagues for the Protection of the Revolution and threatened, harassed, or attacked anti-Islamist groups. After an attack on trade unionists, the Ennahda government disbanded them on 2014, but many still exist in practice (309).
• Some youth Tunisians are also moving towards jihadism, as seen by the estimated 3,000 to 5,000 Tunisian jihadis moving to Syria to join ISIS, one of the greatest proportions of population in the Arab world (310).
• Efforts by the Tunisian and Algerian governments to destroy an Al-Qaeda group operating across their borders have been largely unsuccessful. Additionally, Ansar al Sharia, a Tunisian salafist group, has survived the intensification of the government crackdown on radical Islamism and now operates in Tunisia and Libya under the name Shabab al-Tawheed (309-310).
• The author recommends that Nidaa Tounes and Ennahda form a 'national unity government' composed of both parties, dedicated to eliminating partisan politics and putting the national interest first. An interview with Rachid Ghannouchi, the head of Ennahda, in December 2014 seemed to indicate that he was considering such an arrangement (310).