Survey Finds Low Levels of Trust for Political Leaders

As the composition of the new government is set to be announced Friday, a recent poll by market research company Sigma Conseil sheds some light on the current political attitudes of Tunisians.

The survey’s most significant finding was that Tunisians expressed low levels of trust in political leaders.

Out of the poll’s 1,616 participants, 59% reported they did not trust any politicians or refused to comment. Of those who did indicate trust in a political figure, 31.5% said they had the most faith in Beji Caid Essebsi, founder of the opposition Nidaa Tounes party. Incoming Prime Minister Ali Laarayedh ranked second as the most trusted politician in Tunisia, followed by former Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali and Ennahdha party founder Rached Ghannouchi.

The date of the next election has yet to be specified and an election oversight body established. Initial predictions that the election would take place this summer seem increasingly unlikely given the progress of deliberations on the constitutional draft in the National Constituent Assembly (NCA).

Nonetheless, Sigma Conseil posed the hypothetical question, “If the presidential elections were to be held tomorrow, for which active political figure would you vote?”

Over half — 61.1% — of survey participants said they were unsure or did not intend to cast a ballot in the coming election. Of those who did provide a candidate preference, 29.1% reported they would vote for Essebsi. Jebali came in second, with Secretary General of the Workers’ Party Hamma Hammami and Laarayedh trailing behind in third and fourth places, respectively.

Sitting President Moncef Marzouki was the “great loser” in the poll question related to the presidency, Hassen Zargouni, CEO of Sigma Conseil, told Tunisia Live. In a similar poll taken the month after the October 23, 2011 elections to determine the NCA, Marzouki came out on top as the respondents’ first choice to take the presidency.

Zargouni said he thought Marzouki’s seemingly ineffectiveness as president has confounded Tunisians.

“They don’t understand a situation of a president with no power,” he said.

Zargouni went on to explain the favorable responses regarding Essebsi.

There is a “rational reason” and an “emotional reason” as to why Essebsi garners the most trust out of all the political figures mentioned in the survey, Zargouni stressed.

“He delivers,” he said of Essebsi, whose transitional government was charged with establishing the groundwork for elections to decide the composition of the current NCA; Essebsi promised “sincere and transparent elections… and he succeeded.”

Essebsi also resonates with Tunisians on an emotional level, Zargouni said.

“He [Essebsi] represents a recourse for all… progressives, modernists, and secularists,” he said.

Furthermore, while the ruling Troïka coalition appears “very divided,” said Zargouni, Essebsi seems to be the one person that can unite the political opposition.

The poll took place days after former Interior Minister Laarayedh was tapped to replace former Prime Minister Jebali. Laarayedh’s detractors have criticized his appointment, pointing to his performance as interior minister and the unsatisfactory gains in security reform during his tenure.

Of those polled, 47.7% did not agree with his designation as prime minister, while 31.5% said they were satisfied with the nomination.

“The… period offered to Ali Laarayedh to lead the forthcoming government will be quite hard given the political, economic, and social context that the country is currently going through,” Zargouni said.