31 August 2018•Update: 01 September 2018
By Adil
TUNIS
Tunisia’s Ennahda movement has stressed its insistence on holding next year’s legislative and presidential polls on schedule, despite calls by some political figures to postpone them.
In a statement issued late Thursday on its official website, Ennahda said that “holding elections on time -- and in accordance with the constitution -- is necessary to freeing ourselves from dictatorship and a valid expression of the popular will”.
The group went on to declare: “Without elections, there can be no democratic legitimacy.”
According to local media reports, several Tunisian political figures -- including Noureddine Taboubi, secretary-general of Tunisia’s influential General Labor Union -- have called for postponing the polls, which are currently slated to be held late next year.
An Islamic-leaning political movement, Ennahda holds 68 seats in Tunisia’s 217-member parliament.
