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High security alert as Tunisian elections nearing

October 24, 2014 at 1:27 pm

Three days before the Election Day one policeman was killed and another wounded in an exchange of fire between security forces and Islamist militants in Oued Ellil, a suburb to capital Tunis as security forces were investigating a house believed to be the hideout for a group preparing to disrupt the elections, announced Interior Ministry spokesman Mohammed Ali Aroui during a press conference. Earlier the same day one civilian was killed when two alleged insurgents were detained in the country’s southern city of Kebili, allegedly “preparing operations in the area,” declared Aroui. According to local radio station Mosaique FM five soldiers had also been injured in a landmine explosion near the Algerian border.

Despite the pre-election violence Aroui assured the public at a press conference that security forces will guarantee the safety of the elections, “We have escalated the pre-emptive operations to secure the elections,” he announced and added, “We want to send a reassuring message to Tunisians: our security forces are ready.” However, with only two days to go until Tunisian parliamentary elections security remains on high alert as fear is mounting that extremists will manage to disrupt the country’s final democratic step.

Tunisia has become a democratic role model in the region and the Arab Spring’s last hope for a successful democratic transition. The Parliamentary Election on October 26, followed by the Presidential vote November 23, mark the country’s final step of its democratic process, which began in the end of 2010 with the start of the Arab Spring protests. However, Tunisia, located between Algeria and Libya, both of which have Islamist extremist groups declaring loyalty to the Islamic State, which reject democratic practices and instead aims to establish an Islamic Caliphate, fear a spill over effect.

The already insecure Algeria-Tunisia border region of Kasserine with its, by now notorious, Mount Chaambi, an alleged hideout for radical extremists, has already caused concern about the country’s rise in extremist violence since the revolution. Terrorist movement Ansar al-Shariah, which emerged after the revolution, in 2011, is believed to be behind an attack on the US embassy and the American school in 2012, as well as the two political assassinations of leftist politician Chokri Belaid and Mohammed al-Brahimi in 2013. The group has announced allegiance with both the Islamic State’s self-described caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and al-Qaeda’s Ayman Zawahri. In a statement in July the group also declared war on the Tunisian state.

Another group, the Okba Ibn Nafaa Brigade, believed to be affiliated with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has threatened the elections in a statement on the group’s website.

The group claimed responsibility for an attack earlier this year, during the holy fasting month of Ramadan, which brutally killed 14 soldiers at the Mount Chaambi.

Following these attacks Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa raised the national security alert on September 17 due to the increasing militant violence primarily in the border region with Algeria. Islamist political party Ennahdha’s leader Rachid Ghannouchi has declared that the Tunisian model of governance is a way to defeat the Islamic State. “The success of the Tunisian experience is in the international interest, especially in the fight against extremism and the fight against Islamic State,” Ghannouchi told AFP during an interview.

An estimated 1,500 suspected jihadists have been arrested this year Jomaa told Reuters. The ministry has declared that 50,000 security forces will be deployed for the elections and security is on high alert as reservists have been called up to protect polling stations.

Kasserine region continues to be one of the most affected regions. Yet some of the people living close to the mountain have not seen any trace of radical extremists. “I am not afraid,” said Mohsen Dalhoumi who lived with his 12 dogs in a small shack approximately one kilometre from the foot of the mountain. He has never seen anything, “If anyone wanted to kill me they would have done so by now,” he concluded. Dalhoumi will not allow the security threat to keep him from voting, “I will vote for my country,” he said determined.

However, his closest neighbour, a hundred meters away, Hafsia Yahyaoui, is afraid of a potential attack on Election Day. But despite living close to the notorious mountain she has not yet noticed anything suspicious, “The police came and gave us a number to call if we see something, but I have never seen a thing,” she said. Unlike Dalhoumi, Yahyaoui can see no point in voting, arguing that it will not change anything.

A large amount of security personnel has been employed to secure the city of Kasserine ahead of the elections. “Something will happen on Election Day,” feared the convinced journalist Ezer Mnasri from Kasserine, adding, “If not on the actual Election Day then some time during the election period.”

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.