Tunisia extends state of emergency as polls approach

12.03.2018

Tunisia's nationwide state of emergency, in place since an attack in the capital in 2015, will be extended by seven months.

The decision was taken after consultation by President Beji Caid Essebsi with the prime minister and the parliament speaker, a presidential statement said.

It will come into effect as of 12 March.

The state of emergency was initially introduced after an attack that killed 12 Tunisian presidential guards in Tunis in November 2015.

Tuesday's decision marks the longest extension. The previous extensions ranged from one to three months.

Tunisia is gearing up for its first municipal elections since the 2011 uprising. They will be held on 6 May.

Tunisia is widely seen as the sole democratic success story of the 2010-11 Arab Spring uprisings. The country has been in the grip of an economic slowdown, resulting from the unrest that followed the revolt against long-time dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and ensuing attacks by insurgents.    (dpa)

 

More on this topic
Lessons from the unrest in Tunisia: Free in name onlySocial unrest in Tunisia: You′re on your ownNon-fiction: Safwan M. Masri′s ″Tunisia – An Arab anomaly″: A history of intellectual excellence
Home
Print
Newsletter
MoreAll Topics
In submitting this comment, the reader accepts the following terms and conditions: Qantara.de reserves the right to edit or delete comments or not to publish them. This applies in particular to defamatory, racist, personal, or irrelevant comments or comments written in dialects or languages other than English. Comments submitted by readers using fantasy names or intentionally false names will not be published. Qantara.de will not provide information on the telephone. Readers' comments can be found by Google and other search engines.

In brief

More

Facebook

Most Recent Photo Essay

Umar is an indigenous former Protestant pastor who converted to Islam in the late 1990s and now acts as a mediator between local Christians and Muslims in San Christobal de las Casas, Chiapas. "Our religion is monotheistic," he said. "But we are not practicing a holy cult here"

The indigenous Muslims of Chiapas, Mexico

A trip to the indigenous Mayan heartland of Mexico shows how vital the Muslim community is in this predominantly Roman Catholic country. The southern state of Chiapas is home to hundreds of predominantly indigenous Tzotzil men and women, many of whom have converted to Islam from Catholic or other Christian denominations. By Edgard Garrido