Tunisian general election 2013

[Famous Mortimer]

So Chokri Belaid was assassinated. Before today, as far as I knew, he was the leader of the Movement of Democratic Patriots, a Marxist splinter group with 1 seat in parliament. Dude gets shot, suddenly the media makes him out to be a major figure. He's apparently head of something called the Unified Democratic Nationalist Party? Which I've never heard of before. Then he's the leader of the Popular Front? No, former Prime Minister Beji Caid el Sebsi is head of the Popular Front, which also includes the Tunisian Workers' Party (formerly the Tunisian Workers' Communist Party) and the Ettajdid Movement (formerly the Tunisian Communist Party), both of which are bigger than Belaid's party.

Anyway, the media is exaggerating how important this guy is. I don't think the powers that be would even bother to assassinate him. I'm guessing something personal or maybe typical Marxist infighting.

[Famous Mortimer]

Islamist Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali has announced he is forming a new technocratic cabinet and moving elections up as soon as possible.

The assassination seems to have hastened this decision but the main reason is the ongoing breakdown of the 3 party grand coalition between the Islamists, the nominally secular Congress for the Republic (the party of the figurehead president), and the social democratic Democratic Forum for Labuor and Liberties. The two smaller parties had been been demanding the removal of the Islamist Foreign and Justice Ministers.

A poll was released in January showing, for the first time since the last election, the Islamists losing the top spot and former PM Beji Caid el Sebsi's Call for Tunisia winning a plurality. Beji Caid el Sebsi had already been leading presidential polls for some time. However in both the parliamentary poll and the presidential polls, there was 30 to 50% undecided. Based on the last election and the election in Egypt (because all Arabs are the same - joking - sort of) you can pretty safety give all those undecideds to the Islamists.

[Famous Mortimer]

Corrections (as best I can figure out):

Beji Caid el Sebsi's Call for Tunisia is not part of the Popular Front.

Nor is the Ettajdid Movement (now called the Social Democratic Path), which is aligned with the Republic Party (formerly the Progressive Democratic Party, the party that was supposed to come in second in the last election but ended up coming in 5th).

The Popular Front is only the Tunisian Workers' Party and the Movement of Democratic Patriots.

God, reporting from Tunisia is a disaster.

[Famous Mortimer]

I'd dispute the classification of CPR as left liberal. They're a classic African oppositionist party, founded in exile with no real platform besides opposition to dictatorship.