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Ennahda expects 41 per cent of votes in parliamentary elections

October 22, 2014 at 10:54 am

The head of Tunisia’s Ennahda movement, Rashid Al-Ghannouchi, said that Ennahda is expecting to win about 41 per cent of the vote in the upcoming parliamentary elections, slated for next Sunday, Anadolu news agency reported.

Al-Ghannouchi expected a similar number of seats to that achieved in the previous election – the one that took place for the Constitutional Council on 23 October 2011.

In that election, Ennahda won 89 seats out of 217, or 41 per cent. The new parliament will also be comprised of 217 seats. “Last time, we got 89 seats,” Anadolu quoted Al-Ghannouchi as saying, “and we expect to get a similar number this time, more or less.”

When asked about the solution his movement is proposing for the Tunisian economy, Al-Ghannouchi stressed that Ennahda adopts a programme similar to that of the other parties – a free market economy – but one based on a preference for the poor, who ignited the fire of the revolution in the internal, middle and eastern Tunisian governorates, and which also incorporates Islamic banking into the Tunisian economy, including Islamic Sukuk, which are bonds, as well as Islamic Insurance.

“We want to make Tunis a centre for the Islamic economy,” he said.

Regarding whether members of Ennahada supported certain candidates for the presidency, such as current President Mocif Al-Marzouqi, Al-Ghannouchi said that his movement is now busy with the parliamentary elections and would keep up with the desires of its members in that regard.

“We are busy with the parliamentary elections now,” he said, “next Monday [one day after the parliamentary elections] we are going to open the door for the presidential election [slated on 23 November].” But he reiterated that his movement would not compete for this position.

Commenting on the fierce debates between one of Ennahda’s leaders and an official in Al-Marzouqi’s electoral campaign, Al-Ghannouchi said that these are “personal opinions” and would not affect the overall position of his movement.