Independent candidate for Tunisian presidencies Mohamed Seghir Nouri: Tunisia's salvation in local government

Interviewed by Mounira Hajlawi-Sidi Bouzid

Independent candidate for Tunisia's premature presidential election, Mohamed Saghir Nouri, slated for Sunday, said his main goal is to focus local governance in the regions to ensure fair and effective development.

Nouri said in an interview with Al Jazeera Net that the successive governments after the revolution failed to get Tunisia out of its economic crises because of party conflicts and neglect of the development side.

He also stressed that he chose to run as an independent because he is not looking for alliances and to win ministerial portfolios.

The following is the text of the interview:

Candidate Mohamed Saghir Nouri has emerged as an unknown rival to the Carthage Palace. How do you present yourselves?
I am an engineer in modern technologies, a doctor in development economics and an expert in strategic planning.

After the revolution of 17 December 2010, I became a civil society activist, formed the Center for Strategic Studies and Development (CSSD), and drafted a program to build an advanced society in Tunisia and tried it in the governorates of Sidi Bouzid.

Summarize us your election platform?
My electoral platform is based on four axes: the first is developmental and has the lion's share due to the country's situation and needs, and the second is good governance by removing the country from the centralization and chaos in the constitution and activating local government.

The third axis is Tunisia's radiation abroad through a new partnership with the EU and Africa, while the fourth includes a plan to combat terrorism, violence, idleness and chaos.

What convinces the voter to give you his vote only, especially since you are new to the political arena?
Tunisia today needs a completely new approach to eliminate the current system's failed approach, which focused on partisan consensus and political conflicts and neglected the economy, development and employment. This is an ineffective approach because citizens are willing to participate in the development process, so I will also focus on local governance.

As a candidate from Sidi Bouzid, what can you offer to this province, which has suffered from marginalization and lack of development for years?
I launched and experimented with the development model that shaped my electoral program from Sidi Bouzid, and focused on local governance because it will enable the people of the interior to control their future.

I will also work to focus the Supreme Council of Local Communities in Sidi Bouzid, which will make it the political capital of Tunisia, which is in keeping with the nature of this province that gave Tunisia freedom, the conscience and political awareness of Tunisian society.

In your program, you focused on concentrating local governance and easing centralization to save Tunisia, in your opinion: is this a radical solution to the country's crises?
We have a comprehensive program based on an essential element of local governance, because it will solve the problem of development, involve youth and citizens in the development process, protect the country from the problem of a return to tyranny and change our perception of the Tunisian government.

Why are you betting on local government and almost do everything to save Tunisia from its economic and social crisis with this option?
Local governance is not everything, but it has an essential role. It enables a just development spread across all sides and contributes strongly to the political stability of the country and protects it from returning to the tyranny square.

It also has a major role to play in maintaining security because the fight against terrorism is carried out not only with great military force, but by involving the citizen in the process of securing the country.

A lot of experiences in other countries have proved the failure of the local governance system in the regions and decentralization, which puts Tunisia in a dangerous turn if this bet fails and could lead to the division and fragmentation of the country. What do you think?
Local governance in the Tunisian Constitution is based on two forces, costly organizational and services represented in municipalities, and the second productive development represented in the regional councils, and the failure of experience is usually due to the primacy of regulatory authority over productivity in local government, which happened in Tunisia, while in all developed countries contributed Local governance in building a strong and advanced economy, equitable development and participatory democracy, cannot divide the country because its powers are developmental, not political and sovereign.

Why do you cling to the Parliament of Sidi Bouzid?
The Tunisian constitution states that the parliament of the regions should be outside the capital, and Sidi Bouzid is geographically located in the center of the country, in addition to its symbolism as the cradle of the revolution and the heartbeat of the Tunisian people.Therefore, Sidi Bouzid must be a symbol of local government and embrace the parliament of the regions, which is a natural and legitimate issue.

What practical solutions do you suggest for youth employment?
Through my program, we conducted an experiment in the governorate of Sidi Bouzid.

We also propose to activate the development partnership with the European Union to be able to bring major investments and factories to the country to reduce the high rate of youth unemployment, in addition to more attention to the agricultural sector in Tunisia, where the proportion of unemployed youth is high.

What are the chances of one of the sons of the city of the revolution, Sidi Bouzid, in this electoral benefit and you are one of its children?
Sidi Bouzid represents the thinking and consciousness of the Tunisian people, the spark of the revolution against tyranny, and today there is an intellectual spark from which one of its sons ran for president and was rescued after the failure of the party system to run Tunisia nine years ago.

Naturally, salvation would come from Sidi Bouzid, and my chances of success would have been abundant had the elections not been premature and organized on time previously set before the death of the late President Beji Kaid Essebsi.

Why did you decide to run as an independent and did not look for alliances to ensure one of the portfolios in the next government?
I am not looking to win ministerial portfolios because I consider that independence is a prerequisite for introducing a new program and curriculum and activating projects where the priority is for the benefit of the people and not for the interests of the party and political considerations.

Is your goal only to reach Carthage Palace, or will your political ambitions and goals of achieving your electoral program continue even if this race is lost?
As a candidate I represent a comprehensive and integrated program worked by a team of experts capable of activating it immediately after the elections and supported by fifty-five independent lists running for legislative elections, and will also be the parliamentary bloc behind this electoral program that I proposed.

This means that I am working on an alternative system, and I will continue the experience by participating in local government and attending the next parliament, and my candidacy for the presidency of Carthage is the first step.

What do you think of the powers of the President of the Republic granted him by the Constitution?
The powers of the President of the Republic enable him to get the country out of its crises, but provided that the President is strong and has a clear program, and that he is able to influence and pass his ideas and program.

But the problem is that the Constitution contains a lot of chaos in the distribution of roles between the heads of government and the Republic and the relationship of the government with parliament and in the establishment of institutions, especially the Constitutional Court, so the Constitution must be revised to rid it of this chaos.

As a Tunisian immigrant living in France, why did you come back today, and why was the choice to run for president?
I decided to return to Tunisia three years before the revolution when it became clear to me that the old regime was on the verge of collapse and that there was an opportunity to build an advanced society in Tunisia. And meeting and politics.

What made me choose to run was the feeling that the country was in danger, and that the ruling system failed to save it.

As a resident of France, how do the French view the authorities and the people of the Tunisian experience from the revolution to the present day?
The French people strongly sympathized with their Tunisian counterparts in their revolution. In 2011, I headed a mission from Sidi Bouzid to a regional council in France. When we presented him with the goals and prospects of the revolution, we felt a great impact on him.

Today, however, there has been disappointment with what successive governments have achieved since the revolution in terms of development, counterterrorism, and relations with Europe, leading the French to view the Tunisian experience with bitterness in exchange for their hope for the role of civil society.

How does a presidential candidate realize the concerns of his people as he lives outside?
To this day, I have preserved my family's estate in my countryside in one of the rural areas of Sidi Bouzid because it helped my family to support me and my education. I have never broken the direct relationship with Tunisia.

Since 2008, I have returned intensively to the country. I live in the concerns of my people and I have run because I am aware of these concerns. My main objective is to alleviate the suffering of my people and to enable the Tunisian state to develop a program at all levels.

Why did not you follow the witness for example and gave up your second nationality?
I consider the issue of nationality a formality and it is given importance only in underdeveloped peoples, while developed peoples attract the competencies of ministers and officials of all nationalities, such as France and the United States, which is not even of American or French origin.

However, I have complied with the requirements of the Tunisian Constitution, which stipulates that when running for office, the obligation to relinquish the second nationality.

If you do not pass the second round, who do you think deserves to win from the other candidates?
I prefer to keep the answer for myself because I am above all an independent candidate for this electoral benefit, and secondly out of respect for the electoral campaign law that still exists in Tunisia because of my impact on the electoral trajectory.