Tunisia’s main legal opposition political group called on Tunisians on Thursday to boycott next month’s presidential election, saying the poll would open the way for a presidency-for-life.
President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, in power for 17 years, is seeking re-election on Oct 24., alongside three other candidates from small legal opposition parties.
"The upcoming presidential election will take place in constitutional, legal and political conditions that lack freedom. The poll will reproduce a one-man rule monopolising all power," Nejib Chebbi, head of the secular and socialist-oriented Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), told a news conference.
"The DPP can only boycott that election and call on the Tunisian people to boycott that vote," Chebbi added.
Diplomats and analysts say Ben Ali’s three opponents have only a slim chance of beating him, even if the election were to be free and fair in a country which, according to rights groups in Tunisia and overseas, has never seen a free vote in 48 years.
They say Ben Ali is backed by the ruling Constitutional Democratic Rally party, which has two million members, and the main business and trade union groups.
While his supporters credit him with maintaining stability and strong economic growth in a turbulent region, his critics say that is achieved by suppressing political opposition and press freedom of speech.
Ben Ali, 68, whose five-year term ends later this year, took over in 1987 when president-for-life Habib Bourguiba, the founder of modern Tunisia, was declared senile.
His re-election in 1999 with 99.5 percent of the vote raised eyebrows abroad, as did the official 99-percent approval in a 2002 referendum on a new constitution allowing him to stay in power until 2014, if elected for two more terms.
Opponents say he is trying to revive the life-presidency that was discredited by Bourguiba. But his supporters say he is the right man to strengthen social and economic stability and further democracy.
"The presidential election will open the door for a new presidency-for-life rule which Tunisians had tried out and rejected," Chebbi said.
More than 300 candidates from six legal opposition groups and the Rally party will compete on the same day for the 189 seats in the parliament, which is widely seen as rubber-stamp of the president’s policy.

© Reuters - Tunis
30 - 09 - 2004