TUNIS: Tunisia will bar from October’s election thousands of supporters of ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali’s party and people calling for his re-election, the official news agency said Monday.
Meanwhile, Tunisia’s leading Islamist party said Monday it is pulling out of a commission tasked with preparing the country for its first elections.

The pullout is the latest sign of tension between Tunisia’s emerging political forces as they struggle to decide what the country will look like after decades of one-party rule.
The election commission is compiling the lists of people who can stand in the vote for representatives for a constituent assembly that will draft a new Constitution after Ben Ali quit and headed to Saudi Arabia mid-January after popular protests against his rule.

Those not allowed to stand for election will include officials from Ben Ali’s Rally for Constitutional Democracy party (RDC), including political operatives, central committee members and anyone who played a key role mobilizing on behalf of the party, TAP news agency reported.
The election commission said it also wanted to wipe from the voters registry anyone who called for Ben Ali to be re-elected in 2014, it said.

The number of people barred from voting could be between 14,000 and 18,000, TAP said.
The commission is also tasked with preparing for elections for the constitutional assembly, which were postponed from July to October – a move angering the Islamist Ennahda Party.
Party leader Rachid Ghannouchi said the commission has “deviated” from its task and is trying to impose an agenda “without consultation or consensus” that could once again delay elections.

As one of the most organized forces in Tunisian society, the moderate Islamist party stood to benefit from earlier elections, as opposed to the more than 100 brand new political parties that haven’t had time to establish support.
Ghannouchi added that many of the members of the High Commission for Political Reforms and Democratic Transition had been trying to demonize his party, warning of the dire consequences if it came to power.
Tunisia under former dictator Ben Ali prided itself on its secular ways and vigorously oppressed proponents of political Islam.

With the popular uprising, though, Ghannouchi returned from exile and his banned party has reappeared.
The party will still contest the elections, but it no longer wants to be seen as part of the apparatus organizing future elections and politics, Ghannouchi said.

Ennahda also disagrees with an initiative by some committee members to normalize relations with Israel.
Most countries in the Arab world shun relations with the Jewish state, citing its occupation of Palestinian lands.
The world is closely watching Tunisia’s halting steps toward a democratic transition, because its uprisings sparked a wave of popular revolt across the Arab world.

Ben Ali was re-elected in October to his fifth five-year term with 90 percent support in a widely criticized election but was forced to flee the country on Jan. 14.
With a small, largely educated and homogenous population, Tunisia is believed to have high chances of becoming a prosperous democracy.