Recommendations from members of parliament have become an obsession for everyone trying to get nominated for Tunisia’s upcoming presidential election. It has become a familiar sight to see well-known politicians, and those new to the political arena, in the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) trying to get recommendations from MPs, or on the streets vying to collect the necessary 10,000 signatures.

Recommendations from members of parliament have become an obsession for everyone trying to get nominated for Tunisia’s upcoming presidential election. It has become a familiar sight to see well-known politicians, and those new to the political arena, in the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) trying to get recommendations from MPs, or on the streets vying to collect the necessary 10,000 signatures. All of them claim that their electoral programmes will meet the aspirations of the Tunisian people.

This race has been going on in Tunisia since nominations opened for the election, which will be held on November 23, 2014. Tunisian election law requires the candidate to be recommended by MPs from the Peoples’ Council or by registered voters distributed across at least ten electoral districts.

Now some candidates are claiming that in the days preceding the nomination deadline, the markets for recommendations has been booming. The Tunisian public has been shocked by a number of allegations that signatures of both MPs and ordinary citizens are being bought and sold.

Suspicions of bribery

Some candidates went alone to the different parts of the country to collect the needed recommendations, while others mobilized big teams and spent huge amounts of money, which some say has left the credibility of the process open to question.

The first accusations against MPs were made by presidential candidate Leila Hammami, who said that some MPs were asking for anything between 10,000 and 80,000 Tunisian dinars ($5,500 – $44,000) for providing their support.

After Hammami made this accusations, many others began to fire off similar ones about widespread corruption in the NCA. Hisham Hosni, president of the leftist Progressive Popular Party, claimed to have experienced this first hand after he sought to nominate himself for the presidential election. Speaking to Correspondents, Hosni said four MPs had promised to support him, only to sell their recommendations to a businessman candidate for money.

He added that when he went to voters to collect the necessary signatures, he was surprised to find that even they asked for money. “They have become accustomed to doing so because other candidates are paying, which is how they got the recommendations they need,” he explained.

Hosni called on the public prosecutor to open urgent investigations into the matter, particularly into recommendations received by certain businessmen. He also revealed that one of his own party members recommended Abdul-Rahim Elzawari, a minister of the pre-revolutionary regime, without his knowledge. 

He vowed that the Progressive Popular Party would file a lawsuit against the Independent High Electoral Commission (ISIE) if it did not acknowledge that fraud took place in the recommendation process. He also vowed that he would demand the suspension of the election, pending a decision regarding the submitted appeals.

Withdrawals

The corruption suspicions have made some candidates withdraw from the race altogether. One of these was Lutfi Mraihi, secretary general of the main opposition Republican Party, who said the political landscape was being dominated by the use of money. The other candidate to withdraw was Abdul Kader al-Zaytouni of the left-wing Green Party for Progress, who condemned what he described as the buying and selling of recommendations in various Tunisian provinces.

Many others have withdrawn from the presidential race, such as Bashir al-Seed, head of the al-Mourabitoun Movement, who withdrew after he decided that the upcoming election would be fraudulent. Abdul Majeed Lehbibi, a leading member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, has also quit the race.

Meanwhile, Badra Gaaloul, head of the Tunis-based International Centre for Strategic, Security and Military Studies, said she withdrew from the presidential race because she suspected that most of the results would be pre-determined in secrecy.

She also spoke about the way recommendations are collected with the use of money. “I thought the office would go to a person who has the ability and efficiency to persuade people and convince them of his politics,” she said. “But in reality things are different and this has made me withdraw from this race. By withdrawing, I have protected myself against all this and saved my name and my reputation.”

Political tourism

Hosni explained that buying money is not a new phenomenon in the NCA. Throughout the transitional period, the parliament has recorded widespread use of bribery in ordinary votes. “Many votes were bought and sold, and the courts are still looking into these cases,” he said.

Muhammad Ammar of the Movement of Socialist Democrats claimed that “political tourism” in Tunisia began in 2012 when the various political blocs were redrawn in the NCA. He noted that the formation of these blocs was accompanied by the buying of votes, with the value of each vote reaching up to 50,000 dinars.

Regardless of the money spent in serving political interests, MPs’ recommendations are nothing but tickets to the first station – candidacy for the presidential election. But the ballot boxes will ultimately decide on the popularity of these candidates, and their real weight in the political equation.