Moncef Ben Salem Nationale d'Ingénieurs de Sfax in 1983 He was a member of the Ennahda Movement. He was critical of Presidents Habib Bourguiba and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, calling Bourguiba a "zionist". As a result of his political activism under Ben Ali, he was jailed for eighteen months from 1987 to 1989, and from 1990 to 1993. In 1987, his passport was revoked, and he was forbidden from leaving Tunisia or travelling inside the country for twenty years, as were his children. From 1993 to 2011, he was forced to live under surveillance. He was also forbidden to work as a
Benjamin Bounkoulou line with the African Union's standards", and he called for the results to be respected. Shortly before the July 2009 presidential election, Bounkoulou stressed the importance of having a peaceful election and urged the people to behave in a responsible and civic manner so that the election would be an example to Africa and the world. He headed the African Union's observer mission for the October 2009 Tunisian election and expressed approval of the election, saying that voters were not pressured to vote for President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Seeking another term in the Senate in the October 2011