In a recent poll (conducted on 5-11 May) asked Tunisians who they plan to vote for in that country’s (supposedly) upcoming constituent assembly elections. The results reveal the spread of ideological tendencies within the Tunisian public in general, as well as the challenges facing left-wing parties there. They also lay out how the Tunisians are relating to their country’s roughly 70 political parties, most of which have been founded and organized only since January.
In summary: It suggests political polarization between rural and urban, southern and northern-eastern Tunisians, as well as on (and between) class lines and that the public is not familiar with newly registered political parties. The Islamist an-Nahdha party is the single most popular party but left-wing parties as a whole take a larger share of the public’s sympathies. 12.6% of respondents said they planned not to vote. The top five parties were:
30% for an-Nahdha
29.2% for PDP (Democratic Progressive Party, center-left/social democratic)
11.2% for FDTL (Democratic Forum for Labor and Freedom, social democratic)
9.2% for the PCOT (Tunisian Communist Workers Party, Marxist-Leninist)
4.8% for CPR (Congress for the Republic, center-left)
The Espresso Stalinist 