Tunisian MPs in Heated Debates over Polls, Constitution
MPs engaged in heated debates Monday over plans to hold a vote in July on a much-delayed constitution and schedule new elections in October as part of efforts to resolve a political crisis plaguing Tunisia.
"We denounce this hastiness concerning the calendar" of the elections, Democratic Alliance party MP Mohamed Hamdi said after the office of the president of the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) announced the proposed dates.
The calendar stipulates that the constitution should be completed on April 27 with a final vote set for July 8, as each article must be first debated and then approved by an absolute majority of MPs.
The date of October 27 was also proposed for the country's next legislative and presidential polls, after an electoral law is adopted on September 13.
MP Hamdi charged that the NCA speaker and his deputy announced the dates to the media before making them available to lawmakers.
Earlier deputy Mehrezia Labidi, who belongs to the ruling Islamist Ennahda party, posted the dates on her Facebook page although she did not give a precise timetable for the adoption of the constitution.
Wafa movement MP Hazad Badi urged his fellow deputies "to vote to withdraw confidence from the speaker" Mustapha Ben Jaafar.
But the head of the parliamentary bloc of the ruling Ennahda, Sabhi Attig, disagreed and said he was "fine with the dates."
Amid the heated exchanges it was not clear if the deputies would vote on the proposed dates as expected on Monday.
Several political timetables drawn up since Ennahda's sweeping election victory in the first post-revolution poll have not been respected.
More than two years after mass protests that toppled former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and inspired revolutions in other Arab Spring countries, Tunisia is still without a fixed political system due to a lack of consensus between the main parties.
Ennahda is pushing for a pure parliamentary system while others are demanding that the president retain key powers.
Assembly speaker Ben Jaafar has called for an end to the tug-of-war, with the political uncertainty in Tunisia exacerbated by social tensions and the growing influence of militant Islamist groups.
"We must abandon narrow party interests even if that means making sacrifices, retreating. It is in the interests of Tunisians," Ben Jaafar, whose secular Ettakatol is one of Ennahda's partners in the outgoing three-party coalition, said at the weekend.
"Our people are patient but their patience has its limits, we must attend to their problems," he added.
Aside from the parliamentary deadlock, Tunisia has been grappling with a political crisis triggered by the killing last month of Chokri Belaid.
There are hopes that it may finally be able to overcome this crisis, which brought down the government of Hamadi Jabali, when parliament holds a vote of confidence on Tuesday for premier-designate Ali Larayedh's new cabinet line-up.
Source: Agence France Presse
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