The Constitutional Democratic Rally (Arabic: التجمع الدستوري الديمقراطي At-Tajammu‘ Ad-Dustūrī Ad-Dīmuqrāṭī, French: Rassemblement Constitutionel Démocratique), also referred to by its French acronym RCD, formerly called Neo Destour then Socialist Destourian Party, was the ruling party in Tunisia from its formation in 1988 until it was overthrown and dissolved in the 2011 Tunisian revolution. The party held strong majorities in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Chamber of Councillors. In the 2009 general election, the last held before the revolution, the RCD won 161 of 214 seats with the remaining 53 seats going to minority parties.
These elections were widely seen as fraudulent, and this proved to be a major cause of the revolution which forced President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to resign and leave Tunisia. In response to the RCD government's attempt to suppress the protests, the Socialist International ceased the membership of the RCD. In order to placate protesters and designated coalition participants, the incumbent president and prime minister resigned from their memberships in the RCD on January 18 and all remaining RCD-aligned ministers resigned their party memberships on the 20th, the effect of which left the RCD with only a parliamentary majority. On January 27, Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi carried out a major reshuffle, removing all former RCD members other than himself from the government. On March 9, the party was finally dissolved by the Tunisian courts.
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