Tunisia: National Salvation Front claims authorities are blocking meetings

The opposition National Salvation Front in Tunisia said on Sunday that the authorities had prevented it from holding a meeting in El Kef on Sunday, thus breaching its “freedom of assembly”. The allegation was made by the head of the party, Ahmed Najib Chebbi, speaking to some of his supporters in a closed meeting, Anadolu has reported. A video of the event was posted on Facebook.

Although government officials claimed that the meeting was subject to the authority of the Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE), Chebbi pointed out that the organisation is not standing candidates in any elections. “What happened today indicates the double standards of the authority,” he added. “It claims that freedoms are protected, but they aren’t.”

The Front includes five opposition parties: Ennahda, Heart of Tunisia, Dignity Coalition, Movement Party and Al-Amal, as well as the Citizens Against the Coup campaign and many MPs.

“Today, no one stands with the person who committed the coup [a reference to President Kais Saied], neither parties nor organisations nor citizens nor administration,” claimed Ajmi Lourimi of the National Salvation Front and Ennahda. “Kais Saied is no longer part of the solution, he does not have solutions for Tunisia. Rather he has become the problem.” Everyone in the opposition, he said, call for an end to tyranny, a return to democracy and a boycott of “deluded” elections.

Tunisia is going through an election campaign in advance of polls opening on 17 December.
The authorities in Tunisia did not respond to Anadolu’s request for comment in time for the publication of its article.

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