Tunisian Elections: Islamist party congratulates secular rivals on election win

Official election commission results from Sunday's vote were still to come, but exit polls and statistical samples both point towards a win for Nida Tunis (Tunisia Calls), with about 35 percent of the seats in the 217-seat parliament.

That would give the party the right to name a prime minister. Its leader, 87-year-old Tunisian political veteran Beji Caid Essebsi, had vowed to form a coalition with other parties.

"The Tunisian people have reinforced their commitment to democracy with credible and transparent elections that gave Tunisians of all political tendencies a free vote," Annemie Neyts-Uytterbroeck, head of the European Union's observer mission, told reporters on Tuesday.

The election had been held amid tight security aimed to protect against extremist attacks. Sunday marked the country's first parliamentary vote since 2011 when it became the birthplace of the Arab Spring revolution, which has since led to turmoil in neighboring nations. Tunisia has also struggled with security in the revolution's aftermath, though not to the same extent.

Read more: Tunisia Islamist party congratulates secular rivals on election win | News | DW.DE | 28.10.2014

Turkish secularists elect new leader

Turkey's main opposition party elected a new leader backing political and economic reform on Saturday in a bid to win back disenchanted voters who have deserted to the Islamist-leaning AK Party over the last decade.

 The new chairman, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, a 62-year former civil servant, said his priority would be combating unemployment and graft. He is expected to focus on restoring the party's left-wing credentials and winning back poor voters from AK.




The Republican People's Party (CHP), which represents secularist forces including the military and senior judges, was thrown into disarray when veteran party leader Deniz Baykal resigned following a sex tape scandal.Baykal fell out of favor with middle-class voters by firmly resisting the AK Party's European Union-inspired reform steps to pare back the powerful army's influence in politics, reform the judiciary and liberalize the economy. He kept a tight grip on the party that led to a number of former loyalists resigning.

"(The AK Party rulers) rob you and build villas with pools for themselves and grow richer while claiming they are helping the poor," he told CHP supporters who chanted "Prime Minister Kemal" and "Revolutionary Kemal.

For more: Turkish secularists elect new leader | Reuters

Al-Ahram Weekly: Turkey - Empty-hearted secularism - by Azmi Bishara

For the complete report from Al-Ahram Weekly click on this link

Turkey - Empty-hearted secularism - by Azmi Bishara

Modern Turkey has never experienced as extended a period of stability and economic growth as it has under the last government. This government was led by the Justice and Development Party, which just scored another major electoral triumph in the Turkish general elections. In its victory speeches, the Islamist party pledged to safeguard the constitution of Turkey's secular republic.

The Justice and Development Party is far from a leftist or liberal democratic party. But it has certainly governed Turkey better than any other Turkish party that I know of, leftist, liberal, republican or otherwise. Even so, it did not have any easy ride. At one point it had to dissolve and change its name. More recently, it was the victim of a massive hate campaign waged by the left and right in concert in the name of secularism.

Democratic secularists must reach out to and speak with Islamists. There is a vast spectrum of them, and it is important to distinguish between those who share democratic values and those who condemn the democratic process. To toss all of them into a single basket on the grounds of a shared religious frame of reference is to be pointlessly rigid and closed-minded. Even if secularists have some grounds for suspicion, to yield to this sentiment is irrational and futile. The fact is, not only is there a rift in the greater Islamist movement; its mainstream segment will constantly evolve the more it is given the opportunity to involve itself in the affairs of society and state, and the more it discovers, through practice, the diversity and limitations of pluralistic interaction. In addition, the desire to attain and keep power necessitates certain compromises with both self and others.