A taxi driver, a street vendor, a guard in a private company and a number of highly educated but unemployed Tunisians suddenly found themselves holding seats in the National Constituent Assembly after October 23, 2011. 

A taxi driver, a street vendor, a guard in a private company and a number of highly educated but unemployed Tunisians suddenly found themselves holding seats in the National Constituent Assembly after October 23, 2011. 

Over the last three years of often tumultuous politics, they were the focus of attention and sometimes celebrities.  Their pictures have been published on the front pages of local Tunisian newspapers, and their public and private business became the topics of TV news. Their statements and debates were heard from time to time to prove that they were performing their civic responsibilty. 

They participated in the drafting of Tunisia’s new Constitution, becoming the founders of the second Tunisian Republic—the new post-revolutionary Tunisia.

They hope to stay

In three years, they travelled to almost all the countries of the world and they met with the most important and prominent personalities; talking to them as equals in rank and importance. They almost pulled the rug from under the government’s feet, especially when they threatened to withdraw confidence from the President while staying in the most luxurious hotels of the world.  Their monthly salaries soared above more than 3000 Tunisian dinars per month, (US $2000). 

Today, as they see the curtains of a constituent phase falling and a legislative and presidential race scheduled to take place on October 26, 2014, some are scrambling to join the different electoral lists, with hopes that they might stay in power and keep its privileges.

Some of them are convinced that their roles ended with the end of the constituent phase such as MP Ibrahim al-Kassas, who made all possible efforts to position himself in one of the political parties that changed its positions from right to left until it decided to be a Rightist party. Afterwards, he realized that he is very distant from politics and that the only profession he excels in is driving a taxi car or taking care of sheep. 

“After the completion of the Constitution, I will go back and look after the sheep,” al-Kassas said.

Rabia Najlaoui, originally from the poor and marginalized Kasserine province in the west of Tunisia, recently received her Master’s Degree in English literature.  She won a seat in the parliament for the Popular Petition but then she joined the Nidaa Tounes Party.  Before becoming an MP, she was unemployed. 

Najlaoui was hoping to find a place in the electoral lists of Nidaa Tounes movement. Although she had won a good number of votes, the second highest percentage, which commended her to nominate herself again, Nidaa Tounes did not nominate her. 

She found herself facing two bitter choices: either she returns to a past full of unemployment and poverty or she accepts the party’s decision.  She decided to stay with the party and to play the role of the patron of the electoral campaign of Nidaa Tounes. 

Other MPs found places on the electoral lists of their parties.  For example, the MPs of the Al-Mahaba Stream (the Popular Petition for Freedom, Justice, and Development “Al Aridha Chaabia”) – a party which presented itself as the party of the poor, the marginalized and the unemployed, and which promised in the previous elections to make the price of bread drop to its 100 pennies original price-, are trying again to compete in the legislative elections and they are full of hope that they will be able to keep their seats in the Pardo Palace.

The “Al-Mahaba Stream” as an example

The Al-Mahaba Stream, which is a rightist stream gathering MPs from modest social classes, such as MP Saeed al-Kharshoufi, from the Manouba province in northern Tunisia, was selling bread on the pavement of one of the streets.  He is also one of those who have higher education and who hasn’t been able to find a job opportunity.

MP for the Beja province, located north-west of Tunisia, who holds a Master’s Degree in law, Reem al-Thayiri, the MP for the Kairouan province, in central Tunisia and Iskandar Buallaqi, an MP for the coastal Sousse province.

MP Zaghwan Eljadidi Elsibouae, who worked as a supervisor in one of the secondary schools for a three years, i.e., since 2007, is getting ready to return to his job if he loses in the forthcoming elections.  Among the members of the Al-Mahaba Stream is MP Mawladi Elzaidi, a young man who has a national licence in tax collection but who worked in the agricultural field. 

The winning of the al-Mahaba stream deputies came as a surprise in the October 23, 2011 elections.  Those who are knowledgeable about the political affairs did not expect them to occupy the first ranks in the elections. However, the constituent phase was difficult for them because they were heavily criticized and they have admitted that in their public meetings and their press statements when they acknowledged that they felt insulted and offended from this criticism. 

Nobody knows if the deputies of the al-Mahaba stream will be able to get the same results during the upcoming elections as those of the October 23, 2011 elections.  How will their future  look in case they fail ?  Will they carry their resumes with them and their university degrees and tour the city from one institution to the other in search of jobs?  How will these institutions receive them?

Guards of private companies

Tarek Bouazizi, an MP for the Democratic Transition Party (a centrist party), running in the upcoming legislative elections, was working as a guard in a private companies.  Moreover, Fouad Thamer an MP for the People’s National Front is another candidate running for the legislative elections. Before joining the constituent assembly, Thamer was a young unemployed man. 

The next election will determine their fate. They will either continue to live the life they have become accustomed to live with their arrival to the Pardo Palace, or they will have to go back to the pre October 23, 2011 conditions.  The ballot boxes will decide their fate and will have the decisive word to say about their future. 

They many lose all the privileges which they had enjoyed during the previous period, but all of this are the taxes of democracy, which has transformed their lives from one condition to another.  From marginalized, unemployed and unknown people, they became public figures.  The tax of democracy this time may be their return to the starting point.  This is democracy!