Tunisian assembly finishes drafting constitution

Tunisia’s National Constituent Assembly (NCA) has approved the final articles of the North African country’s new constitution, about three years after Tunisians launched a successful revolution against former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

“Finally, we have reached this moment,” NCA President Mustapha Ben Jaafar said on Thursday in the assembly as lawmakers chanted the national anthem.

The assembly is likely to vote on the new charter on Saturday.

On January 9, Tunisia’s ruling party Ennahda stepped down in an agreement with opponents to end the impasse and make way for a caretaker administration of technocrats to govern the country until new elections later this year.

Interim Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa has pledged to form a non-partisan cabinet once the assembly approves the constitution.

A newly appointed election committee has not announced a date for the presidential election yet.

“On Saturday, we’ll have a session to approve the constitution and then Monday, another festive session to sign the constitution of the revolution,” said Ennahda member Badredine Abd Kefi.

In September last year, Ennahda and the opposition coalition National Salvation Front agreed to begin talks on the transition plan.

On September 20, the ruling party announced that it had accepted the roadmap proposed by the mediators to end the deadlock that started after the assassination of an opposition politician two months earlier.

The July 25 murder of Mohamed Brahmi, the second such assassination in six months, created the crisis in Tunisia with the National Salvation Front blaming the government for failing to maintain security and tolerating the militants it accused of the killing.

The opposition has been staging large demonstrations, demanding the resignation of the government, a new administration of technocrats and new elections.

Brahmi, who was a member of the Popular Front party, held a seat in the assembly tasked with writing the constitution following the 2011 revolution.

The assassination of leftist opposition figure Chokri Belaid outside his home in the capital in February last year triggered violent demonstrations across the country, with the headquarters of the Ennahda party being attacked in more than a dozen cities.

Tunisia, the birthplace of pro-democracy protests across North Africa and the Middle East, is struggling with a democratic changeover after the overthrow of its Western-backed dictator Ben Ali in January 2011.