Text poll shows economy, security priority for Tunisians

Tunisia's interim President Moncef Marzouki The Tunisian people spoke loud and clear in poll results released Saturday by Tunisian think tank I Watch: the economy and security must take precedence for Tunisian politicians, while President Moncef Marzouki continued to be the most popular politician in the country.
In spite of all the media attention concerning Islam and the “Arab-Muslim identity,” the numbers show that Tunisians are far more concerned with making ends meet. In response to the question “What is your main priority today,” 40 per cent answered “the economy” while only 18 per cent said “national identity.”
Neither do Tunisians appear particularly concerned by the process of writing the country’s new constitution. Far more respondents chose “security” as their priority (31 per cent) over “the constitution” (11 per cent).
The results were communicated by the I Watch organisation at a press conference Saturday in Tunis entitled, “The Perceptions of Transition in Tunisia.” It is considered to be the largest poll carried out in the history of Tunisia.
“It is a poll that tries to follow the evolution of public opinion,” the founder of I Watch Tunisia, Ashraf Aouadi said.
The poll, conducted via text message, gathered the opinions of more than 15,000 Tunisians in 24 governorates. Participants answered a series of questions about their expectations concerning the constitution, their priorities, their concerns, their favourite political party, and their approval of Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, President Moncef Marzouki, and President of Constituent Assembly Mustapha Ben Jaafar.
Perhaps surprisingly in light of his recent faux pas and a stream of mockery and criticism on Tunisian social media, President Marzouki continues to be the most popular politician in the country, with his approval rating increasing by a point to 69 per cent.
However, the poll results date back to January, before Marzouki made the public flub of sending away a Syrian ambassador who was in fact no longer in the country.
“We expect more changes for February, because the government has been taking decisions that are likely to influence public opinion,” Aouadi asserted.
Prime Minister Jebali’s approval rating stands at 48 per cent, up 8 percentage points from December, mostly coming from undecided voters, while Ben Jaafar’s is at 49 per cent, up two.
Support for Ennahda continues to see its popularity increase vis-à-vis the other parties, reaching 56 percent. Conversely, CPR’s popularity has fallen to 22 per cent, Ettakatol’s to 8 percent, and Aridha Chaabia’s to 5 per cent.  The PDP, battered in October’s elections, has enjoyed a modest rise in the polls, arriving at 9 per cent.
Cynicism seems to have set in for a large portion of Tunisia’s population regarding the Constituent Assembly elected last year to draft the country’s constitution. A little less than half (49 per cent) of participants expected that members of the body will represent the people’s  interests, while the rest believed they will either do what their party tells them (35 per cent) or will serve their own individual interests (17 per cent).
As to the process of writing the constitution itself, opinion was also divided, with 44 per cent “satisfied,” 15 per cent “somewhat satisfied,” 11 per cent “not satisfied,” and 20 per cent “not sure.”
When asked about Tunisia’s impact in terms of foreign policy, 33 per cent responded that it has been “positive,” 42 per cent said “mixed,” 14 per cent said “negative,” and 11 per cent said they didn’t know.
The poll was conducted in cooperation with the National Democratic Institute and the American Studies Center Mobile Records, which prepared the results.