It was impossible not to get excited when seeing optimistic pictures of masses of Tunisians flocking to the voting booths yesterday. "The Spring of Arab nations" saw its first free elections in the North African country, which was first liberated from colonialist France in 1956, and then again liberated from former dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in January of this year. The images of voters were pleasant, even if pre-election forecasts predicted a big success for the Islamist Nahda ("Revival") Party. But an important figure was absent during yesterday's festivities - Lina Ben Mhenni, one of the heroines of the Tunisian revolution. Ben Mhenni is one of the better-known figures of the revolution, who ended up paving the way for the fall of the Mubarak regime in Egypt and Gadhafi in Libya. The 27-year-old, who was dubbed "Tunisian girl" after her very popular blog, was even nominated this year for a Nobel Peace Prize. But the English teacher decided to give up on her right to vote. She claimed that the recent elections were one big sham, and even went further, saying they "are a crime against the Tunisian people." Ben Mhenni told the media that the elections were stolen by anti-revolutionaries and that dark forces took the revolution from young Tunisians. In her opinion, members of the old regime who belonged to Ben Ali's RCD (Rassemblement Constitutionnel D mocratique) party managed to infiltrate existing parties and turned them into a big scam. The blogger even claims that in today's Tunisia there is still censorship against journalists, arbitrary arrests by police and manipulation of the government system. And all this before we have even talked about Rachid Ghannouchi's Nahda Party. The religious party, which labeled itself moderate during the recent elections, was actually, it should be remembered, one of the biggest supporters of the Islamic Revolution under Khomeini during the late 1970s. Today, Ghannouchi's model, according to the party leader himself, is modeled after Turkey. Those who are familiar with the conservative Ghannouchi find it hard to believe that the man has changed and made a 180-degree turn. In Tunisia, the party's supporters are divided into two: those who are more moderate and were distanced from the country following the 1989 elections, and therefore exposed to the West; and those who stayed in Ben Ali's Tunisia and only became more radical over the years. There is no doubt that pictures from Tunisia yesterday were heartwarming. This was a true democratic celebration: 90 percent of Tunisia's 4.4 million eligible voters came to the voting booths, while 11,686 candidates appeared on 1,517 national lists, represented by 80 parties, 40% of which are independent. All this in a country in which, until not so long, the president was elected with 99% of the vote and even opposition candidates voted for him. The composition of the Constituent Assembly over which Tunisians voted yesterday is supposed to give the popular tourist country its direction: Will Tunisia look like Turkey or Iran? Neighboring Algeria saw historic elections to parliament in 1997. The whole world talked about the celebrations there and how democracy was on the horizon. Does anyone remember that-
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