Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali

Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali , 1936-, president of Tunisia (1987-). Educated in France and the United States, he entered the army and became minister of national security (1984-86) and interior minister (1986-87). In Oct., 1987, he became prime minister under the aging Tunisian president Habib Bourguiba , whom he deposed in a bloodless coup on Nov. 8, 1987. Ben Ali was elected president in 1989 and reelected in 1994, 1999, and 2004, but the elections have been marked by a lack of real opposition and government intimidation. He had a moderating influence on the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO leaders lived in Tunisia for 10 years) and has been a supporter of attempts at reaching peace with Israel. Domestically, he has continued to develop a relatively secular, Westernized, and increasingly middle-class nation.

Ben Ali, Zine el-Abidine (b. 3 Sept. 1936). President of Tunisia 1987–  Born in Hamam-Sousse, he graduated from the French military academy of Saint-Cyr, and received further military training in France and the USA. He rose to become Tunisia's most senior general, and in 1978 was appointed by Bourguiba to become Director-General of National Security. After serving as ambassador to Poland (1980–4), he returned to become Minister of National Security, and Minister of the Interior in 1986. Though an active Muslim, in these posts he was mainly concerned with combating the growing militant Islamic fundamentalist movement. A month after his appointment as Prime Minister, Bourguiba was found incapable of continuing office, whereupon Ben Ali assumed the presidency according to paragraph 57 of the Constitution. Despite constitutional changes, he remained careful to control political liberalization in order to contain the spread of the Islamic fundamentalist movement. He was re-elected with over 99 per cent of the vote in 1994 and 1999, though the absence of free elections made the level of his real support difficult to ascertain.