Sami Fehri, the owner of the El-Hiwar Ettounsi television station, was arrested on November 5 on charges of corruption and placed under “provisional detention” for five days. The station’s insolvency administrator and manager were both arrested as well.
- Fehri is suspected of money laundering and “irregular contracts” in connection to a production company called “Cactus Prod,” which has been the subject of investigations since 2011.
- Cactus Prod was founded in 2002 by Fehri and Belhassen Trabelsi, a frequent fugitive and the brother-in-law of late dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali.
- These arrests are seen by many as the fulfillment of one of President Kaïs Saïed’s primary electoral promise to combat corruption.
- According to Fehri’s lawyer, Fehri was interrogated for nearly 13 hours and his offices and home were illegally searched prior to his arrest, despite the lack of any official legal proceedings.
The National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT) released its third annual report on the safety of journalists in Tunisia on November 7. The report notes that acts of aggression against journalists have nearly doubled since last year, with 208 committed in 2019 compared to 138 during the same period in 2018.
The president of the Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE), Nabil Baffoun, who earlier this week promised to seek “justice” for comments made by two colleagues accusing him of corruption and mismanagement of the 2019 elections, filed a complaint against ISIE members Adel Brinsi and Nabil Azizi.
- In an interview with Shems FM on November 6, Baffoun vehemently denied his colleagues’ accusations and claimed that his complaint was necessary because Brinsi and Azizi were “discrediting the entire institution.”
- Azizi responded in a statement to RTCI on November 7, defending his and Brinsi’s critiques of Baffoun and affirming what they suspect to be electoral interference on the part of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES).
As Ennahda endeavors to form a government, other parties are attempting to increase their influence on the process by building coalitions and suggesting alternative governance models.
- On November 7, a representative of the Democratic Current announced that his party will form a parliamentary bloc with the People’s Movement. With the Democratic Current’s 22 seats and 16 for the People’s Movement, this proposed bloc would be equal in size to Qalb Tounes (38 seats).
- Mohamed Hamdi, the Democratic Current representative, also said that the coalition would not participate in an Ennahda-led government.
- Meanwhile, Tahya Tounes, the party of outgoing Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, proposed forming a national interest government “based on a national reform programme seeking to continue major reforms and [the] war against terrorism and corruption.”
- The party suggested this approach as a way out of what looks, so far, like an impasse regarding the formation of a government.
Zied Ladhari, rumored to be one of Ennahda’s top choices for prime minister, submitted his resignation as Minister of Development, Investment, and International Cooperation on Thursday. As an elected member of the new parliament, Ladhari cannot serve on the cabinet at the same time.
Final election results still haven't been announced, but we’ll let you know when they are! In the meantime...the Administrative Court responsible for reviewing the appeals against the 2019 legislative elections issued its final rulings on the 11 remaining appeals, rejecting all of them.
- This concludes the Court’s review process of the 36 appeals and allows for the official final results of the parliamentary elections to be announced.
The ISIE is expected to publish the official results of the elections on Friday, November 8. In anticipation of this, the head of "3ich Tounsi, Voices of Tunisians Abroad" submitted a request to suspend the results of the legislative elections in the constituency of France 2—and potentially postpone the official announcement—due to “new evidence of serious violations.”
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