Tunis: As the land that launched the Arab Spring sees a historic election on Sunday, all eyes are on the long-repressed Islamists and whether a big victory for them will irrevocably change the North African nation and inspire similar conservative movements around the region.
Many fear that despite vows to uphold democracy, Tunisia's Islamist Al Nahda party is bent on imposing a theocracy that would roll back hard-won secularism and women's rights. Others see an opportunity to bring a moderate form of political Islam into the Arab world — one styled after the successful ruling party in thriving Turkey.
Al Nahda party was brutally crushed by former president Zine Al Abidine Bin Ali in the 1990s, a policy tacitly approved by western powers wary of Islamists. Now, in Sunday's election, it is set to become the largest party in the assembly that will write the nation's new constitution — largely because it is the best-organised force in the country.
Pledge
Unlike many Islamist groups in the region, Al Nahda has explicitly pledged to champion democratic values and women's rights, but its secular critics warn the party has a secret agenda to impose hardline Islam. Al Nahda 's platform does not appear to conflict with the personal status code and lays down the right of women to "equality, education, work and participation in public life".
Party founder Rashid Gannouchi has emphasised they would work with both religious observant and non-observant Tunisians and cooperate with other political forces.
The party said it seeks to create 590,000 jobs over the next five years and reduce the unemployment rate to 8.5 per cent, down from 14.4 per cent. Unemployment was central to the complaints of the protesters earlier this year.
Critics, however, urge no one to be fooled by a party they say says one thing publicly and another to its supporters, masking a hardcore religious agenda.
Sacrilege
Recently, hundreds of Salafists marched on a private television station that had shown the animated movie Persepolis, which they deemed sacrilegious for its portrayal of God.
Al Nahda condemned the violence but at the same time spoke out against the "attacks on beliefs and sacred symbols."
In his interview, Gannouchi described the Salafists and other religious parties as "brothers," while acknowledging there were differences among them.
Just like US politicians who have one message for the party base and another for centrists, Al Nahda's candidates may be tailoring their message to their different audiences, said Chris Alexander, a Tunisia expert at Davidson College.
Knowing how people will vote in a country with no history of free elections is a challenge. Polling — a new phenomenon here — has shown that while half of the electorate is undecided, roughly a quarter of Tunisians would vote for Al Nahda , suggesting it could take between a quarter and a third of the constituent assembly.
It's a pretty impressive tally for a party that was hounded out of existence in the early 1990s.
