Tunisia’s Al Nahda to hold historic meeting

Tunis: The ruling Al Nahda party will hold on Thursday its first conference in Tunisia in 24 years, aimed at elaborating a political strategy to strengthen the country’s democratic foundations, a party official said on Monday.

“We want to prove that, with the philosophy of alliance, we can achieve a strategic convergence, because the transition period could last between 10 and 15 years, the objective being to establish stable and irreversible democratic foundations,” Riyadh Chaiba told reporters.

The conference should lead to a programme and a position regarding Al Nahda’s “alliances and consensus” with other political parties, he added.

Between 25,000 and 30,000 people are due to attend the opening of the three-day conference, the party’s first in Tunisia since 1988.

Those invited include Hamas chief Khalid Mesha’al, Libya’s interim leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil and a representative of Lebanon’s movement Hezbollah.

The moderate Islamist party that won Tunisia’s post-uprising polls in October 2011 dominates the government in a ruling tripartite coalition, along with centre-left parties the Congress for the Republic and Ettakatol.

Al Nahda (Renaissance) was banned under the regime of Zine Al Abidine Bin Ali, who was toppled in January 2011 in mass protests that touched off the Arab Spring.