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28 March 2024

We're watching you, demonstrators tell Tunisia regime

Published
By AFP

A few hundred demonstrators on Tuesday urged Tunisia's newly-elected constituent assembly to respect the values of the popular uprising that ousted the country's longtime dictator.

"We're watching you," read some of the banners waved by the demonstrators gathered in front of the parliament building moments before the inauguration of the 217-member assembly.

Tunisia's October 23 elections, the first to be held in the region as a result of the Arab Spring touched off by Zine el Abidine Ben Ali's January ouster, were dominated by the Islamist Ennahda party.

"No to extremism", "Don't touch the Code of Personal Status", read some other placards, referring to the set of laws protecting women's rights and often considered one of the most progressive in the Arab world.

"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," said Rafik Boudjaria of the Civic Front for Democracy and Tunisia.

The demonstrators included women's rights and pro-democracy activists, as well as relatives of some of the protestors who died during the uprising that toppled Tunisia's dictatorship.

The north African nation was due Tuesday to inaugurate the constituent assembly which will be tasked with drafting a new constitution and pave the way for fresh elections.

The country's first democratically elected body is expected to confirm a deal struck by Ennahda and two left-wing parties sharing the three top jobs in the new administration.

Ennahda's Hamadi Jebali is to take the post of prime minister, the Congress for the Republic Party's Moncef Marzouki that of president and Ettakatol's Mustapha Ben Jaafar the chair of the new constituent assembly.