Tunisia – The Nidaa Tounes party’s publication of a photo of Prime Minister Youssef Chahed on Sunday as he was about to participate in the ruling party’s election campaign sparked a major political controversy in the country.
Chahed’s move comes a week after more than two thousand candidates for the municipal elections began their propaganda campaign, amid criticism of Parliament for “obstructing” the approval of the law regulating the work of municipalities.
The municipal elections scheduled for May 6 are the first of their kind in Tunisia since the fall of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s regime in 2011.
An official source in the Nidaa Tounes Party revealed on Sunday that the campaign supervisors in the Carthage city district were with the participation of the Prime Minister, stressing that the party’s executives were not previously aware of his presence in the tour organized by the party’s department in Carthage in the areas adjacent to the “Malik Ibn Anas” Mosque.
In the context of political reactions, the Mashrou’ Tounes Movement party, led by Mohsen Marzouk, accused the Prime Minister of “not being neutral.”
In a statement issued on Sunday, the party considered that what Chahed did was “a violation of the principle of neutrality of the executive authority which was declared by the Prime Minister himself and a serious violation of the spirit of the Carthage Document, which led to the formation of what is known as a national unity government to be at the same distance from all parties.”
The party recalled the circular issued by the Prime Minister prohibiting ministers from participating in everything related to preparation or propaganda in preparation for the electoral process for their parties.
For his part, the media official in the Tunisian General Union, Ghassan Al-Gosaibi, was surprised by the Prime Minister’s participation in the Nidaa Tounes party’s electoral campaign, saying, “Chahed violates the neutrality of the state agencies in the elections, especially the provisions of Circular No. 27 issued by the Presidency of the Government, which called on the state agencies to be neutral in the municipal elections.” “.
The opposition parties had warned before the official start of the election campaigns on April 16 of the pitfalls of employing agencies to serve the agendas of the ruling parties, Nidaa Tounes and the Islamic Ennahda, especially of the possibility of ministers participating in propaganda campaigns.
It is noteworthy that all Nidaa Tounes ministers and representatives in the government are participating in their party’s electoral campaign, which has sparked widespread controversy and fears of a return to interference between the party and the state. The Prime Minister contradicts his publication.
