The National Constituent Assembly

Almost 1 in 5 members of the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) have left their political parties to serve as independents or to form new political parties. According to experts, this phenomenon reflects political instability in Tunisia and can only serve to break the trust between voters and politicians.

Kais Saiyed, a professor specializing in constitutional law, said that the resigning from a given party or switching of party affiliation among certain NCA members will shake the trust of voters.

“This will have an affect on voters and their participation in the next election. When Tunisians elected those members, a contract was signed between voters and CA members. However, the elected members did not respect that contract, so voters can not trust them again,” said Saiyed.

Rabiia Najlaoui, a member from the NCA, who resigned from the Popular Petition party and serves as an independent, said that the reason behind her resignation from the party is due to the lack of understanding between party leader Hachmi al-Hamdi and herself.

“It is true that I was elected as a member from the Popular Petition party. However, Hachmi al-Hamdi and I did not agree on certain issues,” said Najlaoui.

Najlaoui added that she discussed her decision with a group of people, who had voted for her, and explained the reasons behind her resignation.

“I talked to many people who voted for me and they completely understand and respect my decision,” added Najlaoui.

Mohamed Benour, spokesperson for the center-left Ettakatol party, said that four members out of the 20 present members resigned from their party and now serve as independents in the NCA.

“Those members claim that the Ennahdha party is being dominant, which is not true. We stood against Ennahdha’s proposals a number of times, including on women’s rights and Shariah law,” said Benour.

“If it was not for the Ettakatol party, those members would not be there in the NCA. People trusted them and voted for them because they were members of Ettakatol and represented its ideology and programs,” added Benour.

Tunisia’s Ennahdha party won the largest majority of the votes in the country’s first elections in October 2011 after former dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali was ousted from the country in January of the same year.

Since the elections, Ennahdha has governed the country in coalition with two center-left parties – the Congress for the Republic and Ettakatol.