High turnout in Tunisia vote defies forecasts

Al Jazeera ^ | October 26, 2014 | Ahmed El Amraoui

[SunkenCiv]

Millions take part in elections to new parliament even as cradle of Arab Spring remains divided over post-2011 path...

Sunday’s general election is the first under the North African country's new constitution and the second since the 2011 uprising that overthrew the regime of Zine el Abidine Ben Ali.

Turnout defied most opinion polls, which had projected a decline in popular participation in the election of a 217-member legislature with a five-year term...

One of the places where turnout was perceptibly high in Oued Ellil, on the outskirts of the capital Tunis, where a siege and gun battle left five women and one man dead.

Al Jazeera visited a polling centre in Hay Al Ward One, in Oued Ellil, where the voting process was progressing smoothly thanks to a strong security presence.

Snoun Maher, the electoral officer in charge of the polling station, said turnout was high and there were no problems.

"I was surprised to see voters queuing even before the polling station opened. Everything is going well in terms of organisation. We haven't found any difficulty," Maher said.

At least 80,000 security personnel have been deployed around the country and up to 22,000 observers, 600 of them foreigners, are monitoring the elections.

More than 100 political parties are participating in the elections, including former Ben Ali officials who were allowed to compete and are expected to win in major cities where they remain popular.

The Islamist Ennahda party and the secular Nida Tounes are widely expected to emerge as the most popular parties...

The Islamist-secularist divide could well become narrower after the elections given that most opinion polls show no single party winning a simple majority, pointing to the inevitability of a coalition government.

[SunkenCiv]

Source: Al Jazeera

[SunkenCiv]

And time for lunch.

[cloudmountain]

When we lived in the middle east Al-Jazeera was often the only source of news.

Al Jazeera (Arabic: الجزيرة‎ al-ǧazīrah), literally "The Island", abbreviating "The Arabian Peninsula"), also known as Aljazeera and JSC (Jazeera Satellite Channel), is a Doha-based broadcaster owned by the Al Jazeera Media Network, which is funded by the House of Thani, the ruling family of Qatar.

I didn't trust their take on anything, ever, not the newspaper or the T.V. network.

[aquila48]

I found this report from al Jazeera is more factual and unbiased than anything out of the NY slimes.

They actually use the word “islamist “.

[cloudmountain]

I found this report from al Jazeera is more factual and unbiased than anything out of the NY slimes.
They actually use the word “islamist “.

Well, that doesn't say much when comparing them to the NY slimes, does it? I trust the world media NOT AT ALL.

Using "islamist" isn't abnormal. The world-wide Muslim press use it all the time. Perhaps you just aren't used to it from our media.

MOST Muslims aren't Arabs, you know. That LARGEST Muslim country is INDONESIA, so the majority Muslim population is Asian-Oriental (as opposed to Asian-Indian), not Arab. Wikipedia puts both the Jews and Arabs as Semitic, not European, African or Oriental.

Indonesia has an estimated population of over 252 million people, making it the world's fourth most populous country. A new Pew Forum graphic shows that Indonesia is the country with the world's largest Muslim population (205 million). Roughly 88% of Indonesia's population is Muslim, and the nation is home to about 13% of the world's Muslims. [Google]