Al-Watan Party (Tunisia) Al-Watan Party (Tunisia) The Homeland Party (, "Ḥizb el-Waṭan"; ) or El-Watan Party is a centrist party in Tunisia, that was launched on 19 February 2011 and officially licensed on 9 March 2011. It was founded by Mohamed Jegham, former minister of trade and tourism, Ahmed Friaa, former minister of the interior in the Government of Mohamed Ghannouchi, and ten other leaders. Both Jegham and Friaa come from the ranks of the old dominant party Constitutional Democratic Rally, sustaining the Zine El Abidine Ben Ali regime. On 13 June 2011, Friaa announced his resignation from the party to clear the
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali a military court on April 2013 for violent repression of protests in Sfax. Ben Ali was born in 1936 to moderate-income parents as the fourth of eleven children in the family. His father, Selma Hassen, worked as a guard at the port city of Sousse. He joined the local resistance against French colonial forces and was imprisoned. His expulsion from secondary school was the reason why he never completed his secondary education. He studied at the Sousse Technical Institute but failed to earn a professional certificate and joined the newly formed Tunisian Army in 1958. Nevertheless, after being chosen as