Tunisia to hold parliamentary elections by March 2013

Tunisia’s Constituent Assembly The three parties in the coalition government currently holding a majority of seats in Tunisia’s Constituent Assembly have come to an agreement to call for new parliamentary elections on or before March 20, 2013, official said, while dozens of Tunisian opposition parties and political figures signed Saturday a document entitled: “Call for Tunisian unity”, after a rally held in Monastir, the hometown of the father of Tunisia\'s independence, Habib Bourguiba.
An aide to Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali announced on Saturday that the three parties in the coalition government currently holding a majority of seats in Tunisia’s Constituent Assembly, have come to an agreement to call for new parliamentary elections on or before March 20, 2013.
“March 20 of next year has been suggested. It is not a final date 100 percent, and could happen weeks earlier if we finish drafting the constitution,” Jebali’s political adviser, Lutfi Zaitoun said in a press release.
\"There is an agreement between the parties in the ruling troika to set a road map for elections to reassure public opinion and domestic and foreign investors,\" he said.
\"This is not a final date 100 percent, and could happen weeks earlier if we finish drafting the constitution.\"
The Tunisian Constituent Assembly was elected last October to draft a new Constitution for Tunisia and appoint an interim government after former President Zine El-Abddine Ben Ali was exiled to Saudi Arabia following the Tunisian Revolution in January 2011.
For now, Ennahda is ruling in coalition with two secular parties, Ettakatol and Conference for a Republic.
On December 7, the ruling parties voted down an opposition proposal to enact a timeline for drafting a new constitution and scheduling new parliamentary elections while discussing bylaws for the Constituent Assembly, known as the “mini-constitution.” Zaitoun cited the current government’s desire to reassure domestic and international investors as well as Tunisian public opinion for the decision to call for new elections.
In Monastir Governorate, dozens of Tunisian opposition parties gathered in a rally where former interim Prime Minister Beji Caid Essebsi criticise the Islamist-led government.
The attendees issued a statement calling for holding elections by next October, demanding the government to hand over the power. More than 525 political groups and political figures attended.
In his speech Essebsi said \"We were agreed during the handover of power that the drafting of the constitution and organising of the next polls should be completed within a year.”
\"But we can now observe that, four months after ascending to power, the current government is not in a hurry to deliver on its promises,\" he added.
Thousands of people attended the gathering, which also drew civil society groups heeding Essebsi\'s call to shape a political alternative to the Islamist-led government.
Essebsi was a close aide of Tunisia\'s first post-independence president and was still a senior official during the first years of Ben Ali\'s rule.