Governor of Tunisia’s Central Bank, Marwan Abbasi, issued correspondence to Tunisian banks to audit the bank accounts of Ennahda movement and a number of its activists.
The movement strongly condemned the leaking of this correspondence calling for a judicial investigation in the matter. It also asserted the need to avert state bodies from political and partisan conflicts, warning of the dangers of involving the presidency in the affairs of the judiciary.
Ennahda emphasized its keenness on transparency of all legal procedures governing the work of political parties, and hailed the work carried out by state institutions, namely the Court of Audits.
The movement asserted its commitment to the law, indicating that it will provide a list of bank accounts, as stipulated in the Parties Law and Electoral Law, adding that it submitted 350 detailed reports on municipal elections held on May 6, 2018.
Ennahda’s Mohammed ben Salem was surprised that a number of parliamentarians and party leaders, who had previously been charged with cases, were excluded from this inquiry, limiting it to Ennahda and its members.
He called on the Court of Audits, a government institution, to monitor the bank accounts of members of the parliament, political leaders and large political parties that have cases filed against them.
The Court of Audits issued a clarification following the political controversy caused by the correspondence of the Central Bank, stressing that it falls within the framework of its work to monitor the financing of municipal elections campaigns last year. It noted that all the parties that won seats in municipal councils are concerned with this procedure, not just Ennahda.
The statement confirmed that the Court of Audits maintains an equal distance from all parties subject to financial auditing.
Meanwhile, leaders of Nidaa Tounes and Popular Front coalition bashed Ennahda Movement, as Hafez Essebsi, son of the president and executive director of Nidaa, accused it of practicing “political extortion against his father” aiming to weaken the presidency by siding with Prime Minister Youssef Chahed.
Essebsi added that the Movement does not respect the ethics of political work.
Nidaa official Abdelaziz al-Qatti stressed the need to audit the bank accounts of Ennahda and launch an investigation into the funding of many NGOs, which collect donations for the movement.
