Tunisia’s Ennahda movement has stressed its insistence on holding next year’s legislative and presidential polls on schedule, despite calls by some political figures to postpone them.
In a statement issued late Thursday on its official website, Ennahda said that “holding elections on time -- and in accordance with the constitution -- is necessary to freeing ourselves from dictatorship and a valid expression of the popular will”.
The group went on to declare: “Without elections, there can be no democratic legitimacy.”
According to local media reports, several Tunisian political figures -- including Noureddine Taboubi, secretary-general of Tunisia’s influential General Labor Union -- have called for postponing the polls, which are currently slated to be held late next year.
An Islamic-leaning political movement, Ennahda holds 68 seats in Tunisia’s 217-member parliament.