Tunisia suspends 97 political parties for financial irregularities

The Tunisian State has suspended as many as 97 political parties accused of failing to submit their financial statements since 2018, Government official Samia Charfi Kaddour told the legislature Tuesday November 21.

In total, 150 parties have been notified to provide the financial statements or face suspension, Kaddour indicated, adding that 15 parties are yet to be dissolved for illegal financing as part of the State’s efforts to curb dirty money and ensure financial transparency in the North African country’s political ecosystem.

S. Kaddour also indicated that 272 associations or charities are currently subject to investigations and 182 of them have been suspended.

He argued that the increase in the number of suspended associations is due to the significant flows of foreign financing during the previous decade, favored by the absence of a legal text setting a ceiling on these foreign financial flows.

Tunisia, the Government official told the lawmakers, is clamping down on the parties and association after it has been revealed by Transparency International and Paris-based Financial Action Task Force that the North African country features on the blacklist of countries having issues with financial transparency and accountability.