The current banned Tunisian Islamist Nahda was authorized by the provisional government to reform a political party, reported Tuesday the official news agency Tap.
This initiative will allow the moderate Islamist Sheikh Rachid Ghannouchi, who returned from exile in London January 30, two weeks after the fall of President Zine Ben Ali to stand for parliamentary elections.
Nahda (Renaissance) had been banned during the two decades of dictatorship Ben Ali, forced to flee the country after four weeks of "jasmine revolution" and now a refugee in Saudi Arabia.
Rachid Ghannouchi, who is 69 years old, is considered a moderate intellectual.His organization, founded in 1981, is seen as less conservative than the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.
Ennahda, who says he's ideologically close ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to power in Turkey, was the main opposition force in Tunisia at the coming of Ben Ali.
In the elections of 1989, two years after taking power by Ben Ali, the party won 17% of the vote officially, but his actual score was probably closer to 30 or 35%, according to observers.
Punishment which then hit the movement was forced into exile in 1989 Ghannouchi. The Islamists have played a role in the revolution that led to the downfall of Ben Ali.
