Amal Hilali - Tunisia

In the wake of the presidential campaigns of the candidates for the elections, various forms of propaganda and support for candidates of various walks of life. The scene was not without foolishness and appeals such as witnessed by the era of deposed President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, after many thought it was gone irrevocably.

Petitions and invitations in support of candidate Youssef Chahed and other Abdel Karim Zubaidi and Abdel Fattah Moro sparked a wave of controversy, not only because of their content, but to involve known names without their knowledge, to talk again about the appeal mentality that printed Ben Ali's rule.

Social media activists circulated a petition in support of the witness, including artistic and cultural figures and businessmen, some of them explicitly confirmed through posts on their personal pages, while others condemned the inclusion of their name without their knowledge.

The historian Abdeljalil Bouguerra hastened to publish a blog through his personal page, during which he denounced what he considered an insect of his name on that list and condemned the adoption of those methods.

In turn, the president of the Union of writers Salah al-Din al-Hammadi denied his support for the witness, attacking in a strongly worded statement - published on the official page of the union - those who campaign on the witness.

The Facebook pages promoted a photo that brought Morro together with the artist Lotfi Bouchnak, declaring beyond any doubt his absolute support for him, to publish the artist through his official page denying his support for the candidate of the Renaissance.

Addressing his audience and public opinion, Bouchnak stressed that he would remain at the same distance from all candidates, and would be "a support for those chosen by the people by voting, whatever their political spectrum."

A group of parliamentarians has already stirred controversy after signing a petition to appeal to the current defense minister, Abdul Karim al-Zubaidi, to run for president. He also spent a group of cultural, artistic and political figures on an electronic petition to rally support for him.

Shame lists
After the revolution that toppled the Ben Ali regime, Tunisians traded what was then called the "lists of shame", which included art, political, media and sports figures who appealed to Ben Ali to run for a new term in 2014.

Activists communicated revolutionary faces in spreading the laundering of many artists, athletes, intellectuals and media outlets, reminding them of their positions in support of the Ben Ali regime, while some tried to justify his positions by tightening the president's grip on the state and adopting methods of intimidation and repression.

The words "Fourtas after two thousand and what resulted from it was Zain" means that (in 2014 can only Zine El Abidine) as well as "God is one of Ben Ali Makifu Had" and means (and the one God Sunday there is no such Ben Ali). After the revolution, it was a matter of ridicule and disdain among Tunisians to highlight the state of submission and sanctification of the president, which marked his reign.

Support
On the other hand, artists and intellectuals did not hide their public support for this or that candidate and promote their positions through their social pages, where the actress Manal Abdel Qawi expressed her support for the witness, while the writer and university Rashid Karkouri announced his support for Zubaidi.

The playwright Saad Saad Jamousi signed a petition to support the witness, stressing in his talk to the island Net that what he did is far from the methods of appeal that printed the era of Ben Ali, and that it stemmed from conviction and management.

Jamousi denounced what he described as attempts to "intimidate intellectual" he was subjected to, because of his position in support of the candidate, stressing that his support for the witness comes out of awareness of his ability to save the country from the clutches of "political Islam and the lobby of corruption."

Drum and Oboe
Publicity campaigns for some of the candidates were not without a folkloric parade, drumming, clapping, dancing and praising poems, in the presence of the candidates and their supporters, as happened with the presidential candidate Abeer Moussa.

This was the case with the witness, where his supporters raised phrases such as "in the spirit of blood, we will redeem you, witness" when he filed his candidacy file with the Independent High Electoral Commission, leaving a state of denunciation.

According to sociologist Mohamed Ben Salem, the general context in which the phenomenon of appeal before the revolution and in the decades of tyranny emerged is different from the one after the revolution, pointing out to what he called the names of intellectuals and public figures in the petitions without consulting them.

He explained that what is shown today by some public figures intellectuals and men of culture and the media - from ritual loyalty and obedience to some political faces - is greed and not fear in order to search for personal privileges.

Ben Salem expressed his dissatisfaction with the return of manifestations of support for political faces by personalities presumed to be educated elites, stressing that their behaviors, although free in them, but offend the image of Tunisia and democratic transition and detract from the image of intellectuals among the general public.

He concluded that appealing statements, publicly displaying nominal lists of people and highlighting attitudes through the drum and oboe culture would create conflict, partisan or ideological alignment and distort the secrecy of the electoral process.