Three years after the popular uprising that sparked off what has become known as the Arab Spring, Tunisia has moved further towards becoming a democracy by approving a new electoral law allowing officials in the North African nation’s interim parliament to set dates for legislative and presidential elections.
Debate in the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) was clouded by disagreement over whether officials who served under ousted president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali should be banned from office. The exclusion measure was eventually rejected by a single vote – that of the Islamist Ennahda party – which won the elections for the NCA in 2011. Its main rival, Nidaa Tounes, is led by a former parliamentary speaker under Ben Ali.
“The rejection of political expulsion sends a strong message that our revolution continues, without revenge,” Khemais Kessila of Nidaa Tounes was quoted as saying by the Reuters news agency. “It shows that we are avoiding any divisions.”
Ennahda formed the first post-Ben Ali government but handed over power to caretaker Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa at the start of the year after the new constitution was approved, under an agreement to end a political crisis triggered by the assassination of two opposition leaders.
Mr Jomaa has ruled himself out as a candidate in the forthcoming elections, for which officials have said they will need between six and eight months to prepare. One clause of the electoral law imposes male-female parity in party lists.
