Ettakatol: We are ‘credible’, ‘Ghannouchi’s speech was dangerous’.

by Joanna Humphreys and Sana Ajmi

Yesterday, Friday 21st October, Tunisia Live went along to Ettakatol’s final rally in Khaznader a few hours before the crowds to find out how Ettakatol differentiates itself from the other parties, on this last day of campaigning.

We asked Mongi Swab, member of the Tunis 2 List, whether there is a party that Ettakatol sees as its main competitor. He answered without hesitation: ‘Ennahda’.

‘Ghannouchi’s speech was dangerous’, says Swab, ‘he is using religion as propaganda’.

Unlike Ennahda, Ettakatol believes that there should be a clear separation between politics and religious ideology.

‘The revolution was not about religion’, says Swab, ‘Islamists were not instrumental in the protests and no religious slogans were held up on the streets. The demonstrations were spontaneous and unplanned’.

Ghannouchi paints the picture of a much more active Islamic population. In his speech yesterday in Kessarine he said:

‘Our party has the highest number of martyrs in the country’s history’.

Swab agrees that there were Islamic martyrs in Tunisia’s history, but does not feel that this is an accurate portrayal of Tunisia today.

‘Of course Islamists suffered in the 80s and 90s but Muslims that were once oppressed in Ben Ali’s regime are not the majority in modern Tunisia. Islamists do not represent the Tunisian population and Ennahda will not secure more than 20% of the vote’, says Swab.  He continues: above all Tunisians are ‘forward thinking and democratic’, they want ‘security and safety’. Ettakatol claims to provide this security in their position as a moderate party.

With so many self-professed ‘moderate’ parties it is proving difficult for many voters to separate one from the other.  We asked Swab to give us one word to define the moderate Ettakatol. He answered: ‘credibility’.

Swab insisted that gaining the confidence of Tunisians is more important than using religious dogma to rally support.