Anti-Ennahda demonstration in Tunisia as full poll results awaited

Oct 27, 2011, 15:53 GMT

Tunis/Paris - Four days after Tunisia's first free elections, several hundred people demonstrated against the Islamist party Ennahda, in the central town of Sidi Bouzid, where the Arab Spring began, witnesses told dpa.

The full official results of the election to a 217-seat constituent assembly are expected Thursday evening, but Ennahda, which was banned under ousted dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, has already claimed victory and begun talks with parties on forming a coalition.

In the 14 of 33 constituencies for which official results have been published, the party has won 53 seats, ahead of its nearest rival, the leftist Congress for the Republic, which had 18 seats.

One of the few places where the party was beaten, according to unofficial results, was Sidi Bouzid, the depressed central town where a fruit seller set himself alight in December, setting off the demonstrations that toppled Ben Ali and tipped the Arab world into revolution.

A party created by a controversial businessman, Hechmi Hamdi, who comes from Sidi Bouzid and now lives in London where he owns an Arabic-language satellite TV channel, appeared to have won the most votes.

Ennahda's secretary general Hamadi Jebali said Wednesday his party would not entertain talks with Hamdi, causing anger among voters in Sidi Bouzid, who demonstrated outside Ennahda's local offices, calling for their vote to be respected.

The incident comes amid feverish negotiations over the formation of a unity government.

Ennahda has put forward Jebali as its candidate for interim prime minister.

The head of the social-democratic party Ettakatol, Mustafa Ben Jaafar, has been mooted as a possible candidate for interim president. Ettakatol has confirmed it is in talks with Ennahda.

The main task of the constituent assembly will be to write a new constitution, after which parliamentary and municipal elections will be held.

The head of the election authority Kamel Jendoubi said the results had been delayed by technical problems and the country's inexperience with democratic elections.