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Tunisia Page |
Welcome to ElectionInfo.com's pages on Tunisia
Official Name: Republic of Tunisia
Capital: Tunis
Area: 163,610 square kilometres (63,170 square miles)
Major cities (Population)
Tunis 880,000 (1995)
Sfax 232,000 (1991 estimate)
Sńsah 107,000 (1991 estimate)
Bizerte 88,000 (1991 estimate)
Population: 8,896,000 (1995 estimate)
Population growth rate: 1.9 per cent (1990-1995 average)
Type of government: Republic
Independence: 20 March 1956 (from France)
Constitution: 1 June 1959; amended 12 July 1988
Voting Rights: Universal at age 20
Government
Tunisia is a republic, headed by a president who appoints a prime minister and a Council of Ministers. The elected National Assembly is dominated by the Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD), which won every seat in the 1989 election. The next elections were held in March 1994 under a new system and for a larger, 163-member National Assembly. The RCD won 144 seats, and the other 19 seats were divided proportionally among the opposition parties, finally ensuring them representation in government. An unopposed Zine el-Abidine ben Ali was re-elected president with the support of most of the opposition parties. The voting age is 20, but voters must have held citizenship for five years.
Recent History
In World War II Tunisia was invaded by the Axis powers and became a major battleground until liberated by the British in 1943. After the war the movement that had been led by Habib Bourguiba since the 1930s renewed its struggle for independence from France, which was finally secured relatively peacefully in 1956. Bourguiba became Tunisia’s first president in 1957 and was re-elected every five years, always running unopposed, until he was named president for life in 1975. He was a keen modernizer and during the 1980s fiercely resisted a rise in Islamic fundamentalism, seeing it as incompatible with the modern, secular state he was trying to create. In 1987, when his age interfered with his duties, he was replaced by his prime minister, Zine el-Abidine ben Ali.
Ben Ali introduced constitutional reforms and legalized opposition parties. He was re-elected in 1989 and 1993, and has maintained Tunisia’s western alliances while (in addition to formal controls) countering fundamentalist pressures by emphasizing the country’s Arab-Islamic character.
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