Zine El Abidine Ben Ali Zine El Abidine Ben Ali Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (, '; born 3 September 1936), commonly known as Ben Ali, is a Tunisian former politician who served as President of Tunisia from 1987 until his ousting in 2011. Ben Ali was appointed Prime Minister in October 1987, and he assumed the Presidency on 7 November 1987 in a bloodless coup d'état that ousted President Habib Bourguiba, who was declared incompetent. Ben Ali was subsequently reelected with enormous majorities, each time exceeding 90% of the vote; the final re-election was on 25 October 2009. On 14 January 2011, following a
Aftermath of the Bahraini uprising (July–December 2011) into Manama with their cars on 21 September. Protesters managed to slow traffic to a crawl during rush hour but the protest was largely unsuccessful, with delays at the time not noticeably different from normal rush-hour waits. Addressing an opposition rally in Tubli, a village south of Manama, Sheikh Ali Salman, head of the Al Wefaq party said, "when we talk about democracy we want democracy like that of Westminster, France, and America, not the democracy of Saddam Hussein, nor the democracy of Zine El Abidine, nor the democracy of Gadhafi." The 14 February Youth Coalition planned protests on 23