TUNIS: Tunisia’s political crisis deepened yesterday as the elected National Constituent Assembly suspended its work until the government and opposition open negotiations on a showdown sparked by an opposition figure’s assassination.
The latest twist came as hundreds of demonstrators started to gather outside the assembly building for a mass rally called by the opposition aimed at pressuring the government to step down.
“I assume my responsibility as president of the ANC (assembly) and suspend its work until the start of a dialogue, in the service of Tunisia,” its speaker Mustapha Ben Jaafar announced on state television, meeting a key demand of the protesters.
The secular ally of the governing coalition led by the moderate Islamic movement Ennahda was referring to the crisis sparked by the July 25 murder of Mohamed Brahmi that has already prompted many opposition members to boycott the ANC.
The opposition refuses to hold talks with the government unless it steps down while Ennahda rules out any dialogue conditional on its ouster.
In the face of terror threats facing Tunisia, Ben Jaafar condemned the failure of the political leadership to strike a compromise.
“Despite the gravity of the situation and instead of working towards unity, unfortunately party leaders have gone in the opposite direction, towards division, by mobilising” street protests, he said.
Since the ANC was elected in October 2001, political leaders have failed to find a consensus on a new constitution following that year’s revolution which ousted longtime president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
The suspension of the assembly’s work puts into question Prime Minister Ali Larayedh’s targets of the ANC adopting a new constitution and electoral law by October 23 to allow for a December 17 election.
Ennahda chief Rached Ghannouchi, quoted in La Presse newspaper yesterday, said the government will not step down under pressure from the street, while Larayedh charged that demonstrators were hampering efforts by security forces to root out gunmen linked to Al Qaeda.
“There are excessive demands at protests for the dissolution of the elected government,” Ghannouchi told La Presse. “In democratic regimes, protests don’t change governments; it’s under dictatorial regimes that a demonstration is able to topple a regime.”
A mixed bag of opposition parties, ranging from extreme left to centre-right, called for the protest in Tunis due to start at 2000 GMT to mark six months since another opposition politician, Chokri Belaid, was gunned down outside his home. AFP
