• Tunisia days away from adopting their post-Arab Spring constitution
    3 replies, posted
[url]http://www.tunisia-live.net/2014/01/...d-in-ten-days/[/url] [quote]It appears that Tunisia will have a new constitution in ten days. The National Constituent Assembly (NCA) today began voting on the draft constitution article by article. The NCA’s official calendar schedules the adoption of the constitution in its entirety on Monday, January 13. In today’s morning session NCA members approved the title of the text: “Constitution of the Republic of Tunisia” and the first three paragraphs of the preamble. The constitution adoption process involves a separate vote on each article with a simple majority required for each article to be passed. Then, NCA members must approve the text in its entirety by a two-thirds majority vote. ... According to the compromises reached, the controversial Article 141 of the June draft, which excluded amendments to the constitution which are not in accordance with “Islam as the religion of the state,” was removed. Many opposition parties and civil-society activists believed Article 141 would establish Islam as the state religion, contradicts Article 2, which states that Tunisia is a “civil state.” The June draft was also seen by critics as putting restrictions on civil liberties. This included restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly, the right to access information, and the freedom to form unions, associations, and political parties. These controversial points have also been scrapped. Another agreement has been reached regarding the role of NCA after the adoption of the constitution. The NCA was elected in October 2011 primarily to write the constitution and prepare for new elections. Ennahda, the largest party in the assembly, sought to retain all of the NCA’s legislative powers, while the opposition has been in favour of restricting them. Under the new agreement, the NCA’s tasks will be limited to the electoral process, transitional justice, and entities previously established by the assembly.[/quote]
We'll see how this goes. Weird how Tunisia has barely been mentioned by the media at all even in France, despite our fairly strong ties with the country.
Tunisia's politicians have done an impressive job of negotiating, compromising, and building a consensus; a stark contrast to what happened in Egypt under Morsi where the FJP just rammed their constitution through and ignored anyone who disagreed with them, and indeed what's happening now with the army hoping the Muslim Brotherhood will just shut up if they're marginalised enough. There are flaws and things that should probably be changed in the future, but this constitution and the consensus around it should provide a stable foundation for a new democracy. Having all the major players agree on the basic rules of the political system is pretty important if you want stability.
[QUOTE=Ganerumo;43433239]We'll see how this goes. Weird how Tunisia has barely been mentioned by the media at all even in France, despite our fairly strong ties with the country.[/QUOTE] Conflict is interesting, conflict is ratings, conflict is cash. This is peace all over, working right. It's "boring". That is journalism these days. One of the reasons I come to FP for news is because there's always the good little things that slip into here to read like this.
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