REPUBLIC OF TUNISIA Official name: Al Jumhuriyah at-Tunisiyah (Republic of Tunisia) Location: North Africa International organisations: The African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, The African Union, The Arab League, The Non-Aligned Movement, Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, The Organisation of Islamic Conference, The United Nations, The World Trade Organisation Borders: Algeria, Libya Coastline: Mediterranean Sea Land area: 163,610 Km2 Population: 9,800,000 Ethnicity: Arab 98%, European 1%, other 1% Languages: Arabic is the official language and is widely spoken. Berber languages are spoken in the interior. French is used in business and the media. Religion: Sunni Moslem 98%. There are small Christian and Jewish minorities. Form of government: In form, a presidential democratic republic. In practice, a dictatorship. Tunisia is divided into 23 governorates.

Capital: Tunis
Constitution: The Constitution of the Republic of Tunisia came into effect on 1 June 1959. It was substantially amended on 12 July 1988.
Head of state: The President, elected by direct universal suffrage for a five-year term. In practice President Ben Ali rules as a dictator. He was elected to a third term without opposition on 24 October 1999.
Head of government: The Prime Minister, appointed by the President.
Legislature: Tunisia has a unicameral legislature. The Chamber of Deputies (Majlis al-Nuwaab) has 189 members, of which 182 are elected for five-year terms from single-member constituencies, with another 37 elected on a national proportionate basis among parties which fail to win single-member seats. The legislature does not have a website but information can be found at the Tunisian government website.
Electoral authority: The government administers national elections.
Freedom House rating: Political Rights 6, Civil Liberties 5

Political history

Tunisia was a province of the Ottoman Empire from 1573, but from the early 18th century the Bey of Tunis was in practice an independent ruler owing nominal allegiance to the Sultan. In 1869 the profilgacy of the Bey led to bankruptcy, and in 1878 Tunisia became a French protectorate. Significant French and Italian settlement followed.

A nationalist movement developed after the First World War, led by western-educated intellectuals such as Habib Bourguiba, whose Neo-Destour (Constitutionalist) Party emerged in the 1930s. Tunisia was occupied in succession by the Vichy French, the Germans and the Allies during the Second World War. Postwar promises of independence were broken, and a revolt broke out in 1954.

Tunisia was then granted internal self-government, and became independent in 1956. Soon after the Bey was deposed and Bourguiba became President. He established a one-party socialist state and held office with little opposition until 1987, when he was deposed by his prime minister, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Under Ben Ali Tunisia has remained an authoritarian regime, although Ben Ali has contructed an elaborate facade of constitutional reform and parliamentary government. The ruling Democratic Constitutional Rally holds nearly all the seats in the legislature, opposed only by the Movement of Socialist Democrats.

Reporters Sans Frontières reported on the 1999 elections: "Censorship is a fundamental component of the police state put in place by President Zine al-Abdine Ben Ali. All information which is open to interpretation as critical of the regime is banned. Before being published, politically sensitive articles are first sent to the Ministry of the Interior. Without exception, all the dailies publish a photograph of President Ben Ali on their front page every day.

"The two candidates of the "legal opposition", Abderrahmane Tlili, who heads the Unionist Democratic Union, and Mohamed Belhadj Amor, leader of the Popular Unity Party, had to satisfy themselves with no more than symbolic media coverage. Their campaigns served more as "democratic guarantees" than true sources of democratic debate."

Human Rights Watch's 2002 Report on noted:

"In parliament in April and in a national referendum in May, the ruling party easily won adoption of constitutional amendments that included new affirmations of certain rights but, more significantly, enabled President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali to run again in 2004 and 2009. They also granted permanent immunity to the head of state for acts connected to official duties. The amendments were approved by more than 99 percent of the voters: the same official margin by which Ben Ali had won re-election in 1989, 1994, and 1999."