Free Destourian Party

The Free Destourian Party (Arabic: الحزب الدستوري الحر al-Ḥizb ad-Dustūrī al-Ḥurr, lit.'Free Constitutional Party', initials PDL from the French, Partie Destourien libre), until August 2016 known as the Destourian Movement (Arabic: الحركة الدستورية al-Ḥaraka ad-Dustūrīya), is a Tunisian political party founded by former members of Tunisia's pre-revolution ruling party, the Constitutional Democratic Rally. In the 2014 presidential election, the Destourian Movement presented Abderrahim Zouari, Minister of Transport from 2004 to 2011, as candidate. The party is now lead by the lawyer and MP Abir Moussi.
Since early 2020, the party is leading in all opinion polls for the next Tunisian general elections, and its leader Abir Moussi is always second just after incumbent president Kais Saied.[6]

Free Destourian Party
الحزب الدستوري الحر
French nameParti destourien libre
PresidentAbir Moussi
FounderHamed Karoui
FoundedSeptember 23, 2013
Membership30,000 (claimed)[1]
IdeologyTunisian nationalism[2]
Bourguibism[3]
Secularism[4]
Political positionBig tent (with majority right-wing tendency)[5]
Assembly of the
Representatives
of the People
17 / 217
Website
www.pdl-tunisie.com

History

The Free Destourien Party was founded by ex prime minister Hamed Karoui on September 23, 2013, as the "destourian mouvement" to unite the "destourians" (supporters of the dissolved Destourian Party which governed the country for 60 years). The party participated in the 2014 elections but it failed to gain any seat in the new parliament, and its then presidential candidate Abderrahim Zouari dropped off the elections and support the candidate Beji Caid Essebsi[7] who eventually won the presidency.
In 2016 the PDL hold its founding congress, and in it a new leadership rose among them Abir Moussi as president and Hatem Laamari as secretary general. Right after the congress, the party changed its name to its current and adopted a new logo similar to that one of historical destourian part.
The unity of the new leadership was brought to test very soon, as the party in octobre 2016 dismissed Laamari from his position, just two months after his appointment in it before being outright fired from it for "management infractions"[8] After that many other leaders of the party were fired from it, and in 2021 they tried to regain their old positions in the party and accused Abir Moussi of authoritarianism inside the party, but failed to do any.[9]
In August 2021, the Free Destourian Party held its first electoral convention, in which party grassroot reconfirmed Abir Moussi as president of the party for a second term of 5 years, and also elected a political bureau of 16 members.[10] The authorities refused to allow the party to hold its convention in-person due to the COVID-19 lockdown that the country was living in back then, which forced the party to hold in online, and that made it the first Tunisian party to hold its convention.[11] The party accused the government of using the pandemic as an excuse to crackdown on the opposition and limit its rights and freedoms.

Election results

Election year # of total votes  % of overall vote # of seats
2014 11,403 0.33%
0 / 217
2019 189,356 6.63%
17 / 217

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.