Tunisian demonstrators wave their national flag and shout slogans during a protest against the government in front of the Constituent Assembly headquarters in Tunis yesterday.
TUNIS: Around 40,000 secularists rallied in Tunis yesterday to call for the departure of the Islamist-led ruling coalition, but there were no reported clashes with another demonstration held by thousands of Islamists in the Tunisian capital.
“Go, Go Ennahda ... the people want to bring down the regime,” chanted the crowd of mainly female secularist protesters, in one of the largest opposition protests to be held in front of parliament in Bardo Square.
A few kilometres away, thousands of Islamists protested in support of Tunisia’s moderate Islamist rulers in Habib Bourguiba Avenue.
The rival demonstrations had raised fears of violent confrontation and a threat to the transition to democracy in Tunisia, birthplace of the Arab uprisings.
The government, led by the Islamist Ennahda party, and its detractors have been locked in a bitter feud sparked by the July assassination of an opposition politician, the second such killing this year.
The opposition accuses radical Salafists of the murders and blames the government for failing to rein in the jihadists. whose influence has risen since the Arab Spring uprising toppled the former regime in 2011.
Agencies
