Tunisia: Understanding Conflict 2012 - Johns Hopkins School of ...

epresented a complete departure from the Ben Ali regime, whereas the former legal
opposition parties were tainted by their involvement in the old political system.
Although Ennahdha has captured a significant share of votes, commentators are
quick to note that the majority of votes were cast for secular parties. Many on the Left
interpret this to mean that Ennahdha’s influence can be countered if the secular parties
simply unite under one banner in the next election. Ahmed Ibrahim, secretary of the
liberal, secular Ettajdid party, supports such an interpretation, and when asked if there
were any other lessons to draw from the election, he said no (SAIS group meeting, 25
January 2012). A fuller accounting of the secular parties’ varying performance, however,
would note several other factors. After all, the CPR outshone other secular parties,
despite consistently polling behind the PDP and Ettakatol before the election. Similar to
Ennahdha, CPR represented a clean break from the past regime. The party had remained
outside of the formal political system under Ben Ali and thus was not tainted by
association. The other two dominant secular parties, Ettakatol and the PDP, both had
been legally recognized opposition parties and were seen by some as remnants of the old
system. The CPR reinforced the notion that it represented a new era of politics by
refusing funding from corporations, signaling the end of big business in politics. Also,
CPR was not as openly hostile to Ennahdha as Ettakatol and the PDP, with the party’s
leader hinting at the possibility of aligning with Ennahdha in the Constituent Assembly
(Radio France Internationale, 22 July 2011).
A look at the factors behind Ettakatol’s surge ahead of PDP, which had been
ahead in the polls, is also instructive. Lacking the financing of other top parties, Ettakatol
nevertheless showed that it was possible to overcome this by: 1) building a strong
grassroots operation using volunteers to go door to door; and 2) effectively using social
media. The PDP, by contrast, hired an expensive New York-based advertising firm to
craft slick messaging and all but ignored field organizing. Furthermore, its ads featured
the images of the party’s leaders Ahmed Nejib El Chebbi and Maya Jribi, harkening back
to the personality-driven politics of the old regime (Interview with Laryssa Chomiak,
SAIS group meeting, 26 January 2012). As one analyst noted, Tunisia is a small country
of 10.5 million where word of mouth can be an incredibly powerful force. In the case of
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