Abderraouf Ayadi

Abderraouf Ayadi (; born 12 February 1950 in Manouba, Tunisia) is a Tunisian human rights activist, politician and lawyer.

After the Tunisian Revolution in 2011, he was elected as a member of the Constituent Assembly. Temporarily serving as secretary-general of his longtime party Congress for the Republic (CPR), in 2012 he went into opposition, founding the Wafa Movement, which he leads as president.

Activism As an activist for human rights, Ayadi spent six and a half years in prison, five and a half in the wake of the process against the left-wing movement El Amal Ettounsi in 1974. After his release from prison, Ayadi continued to be interrogated frequently, living under constant surveillance from the regime of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. On 24 July 2001, Ayadi co-founded the Congress of the Republic (CPR) and was elected its vice-president. Ayadi participated in a 32-day hunger strike against Ben Ali's regime on 18 October 2005, the protesters then formed the 18 October Coalition for Rights and Freedoms.

Political career After the Tunisian Revolution, he was named by his party, the Congress of the Republic (CPR), as its representative at the Higher Authority for Realisation of the Objectives of the Revolution, Political Reform and Democratic Transition On 25 July, the Wafa Movement was officially founded.

In late June 2014, Ayadi was one of the first to announce his candidacy for the 2014 presidential election. In the 2014 parliamentary election, his new party however lost all its seats. On 19 December 2014 he however withdrew. This information was disclaimed by Wafa party officials on the next day.

After the murder of left-wing leader Chokri Belaid, one of Ayadi's allies during the times as activists, on 6 February 2013, Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali from the Islamist Ennahda party announced on 12 February that he would form a government of "national unity" which would consist of "apolitical technocrats". Abderraouf Ayadi's Wafa party immediately criticized this proposal and stressed that a government which remains true to the values of the revolution should remain "political in nature".

On 20 November 2013 he proposed that a dialogue be started with the outlawed Islamist terror group Ansar al-Sharia.