Islamist parties have blown their chance for power in the Arab world

Islamist parties won’t be returning to power in the near future in either Egypt or Tunisia, according to an audience at The New Arab Debates (NAD).

The session came just a month after the Islamist Ennahda party voluntarily stepped down from government in Tunisia, handing power to a caretaker administration and claiming it was acting to save democracy.

The debate, at the Palais des Congres, saw heated attacks on both Ennahda’s economic and security record as well as the opposition, whom one audience member said had done nothing for the country since the revolution.

Nonetheless, in the final count 66 percent voted in favour of the motion: ‘Islamist parties have blown their chances for power in the Arab world’. Before the debate only 44 percent had supported it.

Speaking for the motion, Ziad Miled, independent politician and former Ettakatol party member, who had previously belonged to the coalition, said Ennahda lacked a clear programme, focusing more on politics and trying to change Tunisian society than on security, stability and social justice.

“Islamists here have blown their chances for power, at least for the short and medium term, though they might form part of a coalition” following elections scheduled for later this year, he said.

“When they were in power, it was a great failure,” he added. “They destroyed both the confidence and hopes of the people.”

Speaking against the motion, Jawhara Ettiss, member of the National Constituent Assembly representing Ennahda, argued that optimism was running high across Tunisia after the “consensual constitution” was passed and claimed Tunisia’s political “roadmap” was becoming clearer.

She said her party’s decision to step down was “a very intelligent move” that reflected its  respect for democracy and a peaceful rotation of power.

Whilst she agreed with Miled that Ennahda lacked “perfect political experience,” she added: “we were much better than the opposition which was bent on destroying the Troika (coalition) from day one”.

Asked why her party still referred to the deposed Muslim Brotherhood administration in Egypt as a group committed to democracy, even after former President Morsi had decreed his decisions were beyond legal challenge, she said she believed that move had been wrong.

But she claimed the Brotherhood had “proved to be more democratic and peaceful” than Egypt’s opposition which had decided to join forces with the Army.