Zine El Abidine Ben Ali a case known as the "couscous connection". French television news was blocked in Tunisia during the trial. At the 1994 elections, opposition parties polled 2.25% and gained 19 of 163 seats in Parliament—the first time opposition parties had actually managed to get into the chamber. Ben Ali was unopposed for a second full term, again after being the only candidate to get enough endorsements to qualify. Turnout was officially reported at 95%. However, at this and subsequent elections, opposition parties never accounted for more than 19 percent of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies. All legislation continued to originate
Ziad el-Doulatli Ziad el-Doulatli Ziad el-Doulatli () is a Tunisian activist affiliated with the Islamist Ennahda Movement, for which he is an executive. Ziad el-Doulati obtained his doctorate degree in pharmacology from the University of Reims in France in 1984. While there he was also head of the Union of Muslim Students. He was arrested in 1981 for his affiliation with the Islamic Action Party, now the Ennahda Movement, then immediately released. In 1987 he was sentenced to twenty years in prison, but was released after only eleven months following the ascension of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to the presidency in