Marzouki: Some saw the Tunisian revolution as a transient event but the people proved them wrong

Tunisia’s presidential candidate for the elections runoff Mohamed Moncef Marzouki said yesterday that “some considered the Tunisian revolution that overthrew the former regime, just a transient event, but the people rose up to refute these allegations.”

During his visit to the town of Kalaat El-Andalous, west of the capital Tunis, Marzouki spoke to dozens of people who had gathered to greet him.

“Some had considered the revolution to be a passing event, but the turnout of the [Tunisian] people challenged the money and corruption machine run by the former regime through intimidation and fear.”

He called on citizens to “vote for him” in the runoff vote so as “to preserve the freedoms that are threatened by the old regime, which seeks to return”.

He continued: “O people, O citizens, Sunday 21 December [the runoff voting day] is a historic day on which your country should side with justice.”

Presidential candidate of the Nidaa Tounes Party, Beji Caid Essebsi, vowed on Saturday to be the guarantor of freedom if he won the elections and became Tunisia’s president.

Essebsi’s opponents accuse Nidaa Tounes, which topped the recent parliamentary elections, of having among its ranks symbols of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s regime. Essebsi rejects the accusations and says that the former regime’s officials in his party have clean hands and were not found guilty of corruption, and that it is fair to exclude only those who were convicted by the judiciary.

The elections will be held on 21 December in Tunisia, and on the 19, 20 and 21 December abroad.

Two candidates are competing in the second round of the presidential election: Nidaa Tounes’s candidate Beji Caid Essebsi, who won 39.46 per cent in the first round, and the independent candidate Moncef Marzouki , who won 33.43 per cent.