One of Ghannouchi's objections was Fakhfakh's determination to exclude the party that came second in the polls Qalb Tounes (Heart of Tunisia) led by businessman and presidential runner-up Nabil Karoui...
Three groupingsThe new assembly falls roughly into three groupings: Islamists; the Qalb Tounes (Heart of Tunisia) party of media magnate Nabil Karoui who was trounced in the presidential elections by Saïed; and assorted centrists leftists and supporters of the former Ben Ali regime all of them generally secularist...
On the face of it it is just another lucrative lobbying deal with Israeli arms dealer turned lobbyist Ari Ben Menashe bagging another US$1 million contract to add Tunisian media mogul and presidential hopeful Nabil Karoui to a client list that includes Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar Congo-Brazzaville's President Denis Sassou-Nguesso and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo aka Hemeti deputy leader of Sudan's Transitional Military Council (AC Vol 60 No 16 Lobbyist of last resort)...
'There is no connection whether close or in law between Nabil Karoui candidate for the runoff at the presidential elections and the signatories of the contract and the content ' said Karoui's Heart of Tunisia party...
Two extremes topped the poll: devout Muslim law professor Kaïs Saïed who campaigned with no political support machine whatsoever; and his polar opposite the fiercely ambitious media mogul Nabil Karoui sometimes known as 'Tunisia's Berlusconi'...
The contests lacked strong drama until 23 August when front-runner Nabil Karoui founder of the Nessma TV station was arrested on corruption charges...
Also competing will be ex-president Moncef Marzouki – who is more popular abroad than at home – and some eye-catching populists if as expected the interim state president 85-year-old parliamentary Speaker and NT leader Mohammed Ennaceur follow's BCE's line by refusing to ratify controversial electoral law amendments which would ban media magnate Nabil Karoui and Parti Destourien Libre leader Abir Moussi from standing (AC Vol 60 No 13 Nobbling Nabil)...
Tunisians have been wondering whether local media magnate and television 'champion of the poor' Nabil Karoui could emerge as a Donald Trump figure leveraging his celebrity to take over the presidency for which he is one of the few candidates to have declared (AC Vol 60 No 3 Eight years of transition)...
