November 7, 1987, dawn:

"It's all set according to the deal and congratulations Mr. President" were the words of Alhabib Ammar to the Tunisian Minister of Interior at the time Zin Abidine Ben Ali, after Ammar has seized control of the Carthage Palace - and this was also the first phone call to declare Ben Ali the President of Tunisia.

November 7, 1987, morning:

During the early hours of the morning of that day in 1987, the head of the Tunisian Radio Broadcast, Mr. Abdelmalak Alarief, put on a recording of a voice message for Ben Ali in which he declares himself President and promises the people democracy and that he will respect the law and abolish lifetime presidency.(1)

November 7, 2007:

The democracy Ben Ali promised was achieved through:

* Hundreds of Tunisian journalists and activists are sent into voluntary exile
* Hundreds of journalists and activists are prohibited from writing or taking up any activities in Tunisia
* Hundreds of Tunisian activists are kept behind bars in Tunisia
* Millions of Tunisians are at the mercy of law enforcement officials instead of the law
* Millions of Arabs are deceived by paid advertisements talking about "green Tunisia, the oasis of democracy and women’s gains, the secular role model, etc "

The other Tunisia… after 20 years:

The Tunisian constitution, since its promulgation on June 1959, has undergone about 14 amendments - eight of them were after the coup led by Ben Ali in 1987. Those amendments took place in: 1988, 1993, 1998, 1997, 1995, 1999, 2002 and 2003.

The most detrimental amendments took place in 1993, 2002 and 2003 as they gave Ben Ali a lifetime judicial immunity in addition to giving him the right to run for president an indefinite number of times.

Tunisian democracy and the enshrinement of the 99 % majority in elections:

Many believe mistakenly that the notorious 99% majority in voting during elections is an Egyptian product, yet history in that regard must pay the Tunisian authorities their dues. When Sadaam Hussein once acknowledged proudly his victory in a presidential election by 100 % (2), that was a cheap copy of the real expertise of Ben Ali.

Tunisia saw during Ben Ali's regime four elections, all of which came up with results totally in keeping with his version of democracy which he promised the Tunisian people during the morning of November 7.

The results were as follows:
# In 1989, Ben Ali scored 99.20 % of votes
# In 1994, he won 99.91% of votes
# In 1999 he won 94.4% of votes But in 2004 he saw a big setback as he couldn't win more than 94.48% of votes, which might call for new amendments in the coming days