European Forum

Tunisian National Constituent Assembly holds inaguaral session

On 22 November the Constituent Assembly of Tunisia held its first session after the landmark elections of 23 October. The 217 seat body has one year to draft a new constitution for the country, after which fresh elections will take place. The Assembly will also perform normal parliamentary functions in this year, such as government oversight and the drafting of new legislation. One day before the first meeting of the assembly, the three coalition partners (Ennahda, Congress for the Republic -CPR-, and Ettakotal) officially signed their coalition agreement.

Ennahda won last month's elections, Tunisia's first free polls since Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was overthrown in January after being in power for 23 years. The Islamist party formed a coalition with the centre-left and the social-democratic Ettakatol/FDTL. The coalition holds a comfortable 138 seats. Missing from the coalition is the enigmatic Aridha Chaabia party, which came in third in the elections with a nationalist message, but little concrete policy proposals. The party was founded shortly after the revolution, but seems to already be falling apart after controversies relating to campaign funding and internal power struggles.

Ettakotal/FDTL leader Mustapha Ben Jaafar was elected President of the Assembly, and immediately caused a little row by forgetting to place his hand on the Quran whilst taking the oath of office during the event which was broadcast live on television. He later declared he “did not see the camera” and swore the oath again - this time with his hand on the Quran - before his first speech to the assembly.

Outside of the palace where the assembly will meet from now on, a peaceful protest was held by civic rights groups and relatives of those who died during the revolution. They held up banners that said “We’ll be watching you.” Rafik Boudjaria, of the Civic Front for Democracy and Tunisia, said: “We're here to remind the lawmakers of the demands of the Tunisian revolution - dignity and freedom - and to tell them the Tunisian people have not handed them a blank cheque.”

Source: Al-Jazeera, BBC, BBC, Tunisia-live, Image.