Parliamentary Vote Leaves Polarized Tunisia Facing Deadlock

(Bloomberg) -- Tunisia’s moderate Islamist party is getting a taste of the difficulties of putting together a governing coalition as the politically polarized country awaits the results of parliamentary elections.

Ennahda, which an exit poll suggested narrowly won the most seats in Sunday’s vote, has pledged a “policy of partnership” as it tries to assemble a majority in the 217-member parliament. But with its main rival, Heart of Tunisia, unwilling to collaborate, the once-outlawed party would have to build a fragile patchwork with lower-profile candidates that will struggle to govern effectively.

“It will be a fractured coalition without a clear mandate for Ennahda or anyone else,” said Sarah Yerkes, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. Official results are due Wednesday.

Further political deadlock would be a blow for the North African country that’s already endured years of infighting after its 2011 Arab Spring uprising. Frustration with the situation helped fuel last month’s shock presidential election result, in which voters spurned the political establishment.

That discontent was also clear in the Sunday results suggested by an exit poll from Sigma Conseil, which correctly called the presidential vote.

It showed Nidaa Tounes, formerly the main centrist party, winning a single seat, down from 86 in 2014. Ennahda, which Sigma said may take 40 seats, previously had 69. Heart of Tunisia, the populist party of controversial TV mogul Nabil Karoui, is predicted to secure 33, while Tahya Tounes, which split from Nidaa, could win 16.

About 41.7% of Tunisia’s more than 7 million registered voters cast a ballot, according to the election commission. After the results are finalized, the largest party will have two months to form a government.

Ennahda says it has abandoned political Islam, although critics still accuse it of planning to subvert Tunisia’s modern history of secularism. Its leader, Rashid Ghannouchi, ran for parliament in Tunisia’s largest constituency.

Mixed Signals

Tahya Tounes, led by current Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, isn’t interested in joining a coalition, Secretary-General Slim Azzabi was quoted by local broadcaster Mosaique FM as saying on Tuesday. “The winning parties must assume their responsibilities, form a government and hurry up in finding solutions,” he said.

Other political groups in Tunisia are giving mixed signals.

The Dignity Coalition, which the poll showed could win 18 seats, has said it could make a deal. But in a sign of the bargaining Ennahda can expect, the Democratic Current, another party, made its collaboration conditional on getting control of the interior, justice and administration-reform ministries.

Agreeing on a government “will be very difficult” and the chance of “entering into a real crisis is very likely,” political analyst Abdellatif Hanachi told the state-run TAP news agency on Tuesday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jihen Laghmari in Tunis at jlaghmari@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Riad Hamade at rhamade@bloomberg.net, Michael Gunn, Mark Williams

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