Ben Ali supporters banned from Tunisia election

Tunisia will bar from October's election thousands of supporters of ousted president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali's party and people calling for his reelection, the official news agency said Monday. The election commission is compiling the lists of people who can stand in the vote for representatives for a constituent assembly that will draft a new constitution after Ben Ali quit and headed to Saudi Arabia mid-January. Those not allowed to stand for election will include officials from Ben Ali's Rally for Constitutional Democracy (RDC), including political operatives, central committee members and anyone who played a key role mobilising on behalf of the party, TAP news agency reported. The election commission said it also wanted to wipe from the voters registry anyone who called for Ben Ali to be reelected in 2014, it said. The number of people barred from voting could be between 14,000 and 18,000, TAP said. Ben Ali was reelected in October to his fifth five-year term with 90 percent support in a widely criticised election. But he was forced to flee the country on January 14 following a popular uprising that sparked similar protests across the Arab world.