Tunisia's main opposition party, the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), appealed for calm Tuesday and urged “democratic forces” in Tunisia to resist attempts to destabilise the country. Violence has once again flared in Tunisia over the last few days with a number of demonstrations and attacks on police stations in several towns. “The PDP is determined to save the electoral process in Tunisia and calls on all democratic forces to resist attempts to destabilise it,” PDP founder Ahmed Nejib Chebbi told a press conference Tuesday. “Some (groups) are trying to destabilise the country and want to break up the process leading to peaceful elections,” said PDP general secretary Maya Jribi, without naming them directly. Commentators believe that Jribi was referring to the powerful Islamist movement Ennahda and to far-left organisations. On Monday, Tunisian Prime Minister Beji Caid Essebsi said that elections planned for October 23 would still go ahead. Tunisia's main Islamist movement Ennahda Tuesday condemned the latest spate of violent incidents in the country and reiterated its commitment to the electoral process. “We condemn violence wherever it comes from, be it from demonstrators or from the security forces,” the movement's chairman, Rached Ghannouchi, said at a press conference. “Our first message is to reassure the Tunisian people: everything that happened does not jeopardise the revolution and elections will take place as planned on October 23,” he said.
