Protesters angered by a local outcome in Tunisia’s first free election burned a central government building on Friday in the impoverished town of Sidi Bouzid, which is widely regarded as the birthplace of the Arab
Spring.
Thick smoke billowed from the building, a large courtroom and police complex,
wholesale jerseys from china as tires burned in the street. Security forces did not move
to control the situation initially, news agencies and local news media reported, as hundreds of protesters occupied a central square and chanted against the government.
“The revolution is ours and you can’t take it from us,” some chanted
cheap nhl jerseys, according to a translation by the local news site Tunisia Live. Earlier,
men ransacked a local office of Ennahda, the moderate Islamist party that won the most seats in Sunday’s elections, according to video posted online on Thursday and broadcast by Al Jazeera. Security forces
eventually fired into the air to disperse the crowd on Friday, The Associated Press reported. There were no reports of injuries.
The violence appeared to be set off by a local election issue, rather than displeasure at the broader results of the national vote. Supporters of Hachmi Hamdi, a former member of the ousted government, saw their
votes nullified after his party, the Popular List, was removed
nba jerseys cheap from the ballot over accusations of campaign finance violations.
Tensions escalated further after a testy television exchange between Mr. Hamdi and Ennahda’s party secretary, Hamadi Jbeli, who has been put forward as a candidate for prime minister, according to news
reports.
The leader of Ennahda, Rachid al-Ghannouchi, appealed for calm
NFL Jerseys Cheap on Friday, praising the town for the role it played in the country’s
revolution and placing the blame for the spasm of violence on Tunisians still loyal to the ousted leader, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, Reuters reported. “We salute Sidi Bouzid and its sons who launched the spark,” he
said.
Sidi Bouzid was where Mohamed Bouazizi, a fruit vendor,
cheap nfl jerseys set himself on fire in protest against a lack of opportunity and the heavy handedness of
the local police, touching off a wave of demonstrations that toppled Mr. Ben Ali and inspired the regional revolutions and unrest that became known as the Arab Spring.
Ramla Jaber, a journalist based in Tunis and one of the founders of the news site Tunisia Live, posted photographs and updates to Twitter as the violence escalated. “They have just burned the courthouse,” read
one.
http://andrius-bukus123.forumotion.com/t33-tempers-flare-at-birthplace-of-arab-spring-after-some-tunisian-votes-are-nullifiedSunday’s vote, the first of the Arab Spring, resulted in a 41 percent plurality for Ennahda, giving it 90 of 217 seats in the constituent assembly. The runner-up, the liberal Congress for the Republic, will have 30
seats.