Call of Tunisia to form alliance with 'democratic' parties

The Call of Tunisia party, which emerged as the winner of Sunday's parliamentary elections, would opt to form an alliance with "democratic" parties to secure a majority in the parliament, a senior group member has said.

Call of Tunisia to form alliance with 'democratic' parties
"If we have to form an alliance, it would be with the democratic parties; the Popular Front, Afek Tounes and Social Democratic Path," Aymen Bejaoui told Anadolu Agency.

On Sunday, millions of Tunisians voted in the country's first parliamentary poll since the 2011 revolution that swept long-serving president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali from power.

A total of 217 parliament seats were up for grabs in the poll, including 18 seats earmarked for Tunisians living abroad.

The "Call of Tunisia," which includes a number of Ben Ali-era politicians, won 84 seats in the assembly, while Islamist Ennahda Movement won 69 seats, according to an Anadolu Agency tally.

Liberal Free Patriotic Union clinched 17 seats in the assembly, leftist Popular Front 12 seats and liberal Afek Tounes nine seats.

The results came as a surprise to many local and foreign observers, given that Ennahda had won a majority of seats in Tunisia's constitution-drafting assembly in a 2012 vote following Ben Ali's ouster.

In order to form a government, the Call of Tunisia should form an alliance to reach the threshold of 109 seats.

Ayman said that his party has "a moral obligation" towards the supporters of the Popular Front, Afek Tounes and Social Democratic Path, since they had opted to vote for the Call of Tunisia to avoid the division of votes as it happened in the 2012 vote.

Meanwhile, Kacem Makhlouf, a senior party member in the northeastern city of Monastir, told AA: "We will make a coalition with parties that shares the same ideas with us."

Anadolu Agency
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