A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Tunisia Completes its Constitution

Tunisia's National Constituent Assembly has finally voted on each of the articles of the new constitution, completing the draft document, including the much debated Article 6 on religious freedom. It still must vote on the overall document as a whole, and must be adopted by a two-thirds majority to avoid going to a national referendum, which might prove divisive.

The constitutional process has been long, but one which saw much compromise between secular and Islamist parties, and has produced a document genuinely hammered out through negotiation, in contrast to Egypt's newly-adopted charter.

You can find an English translation of those articles that had been adopted up to a couple of days ago here.

1 comment:

B. Ali said...

Let's hope the 2/3 vote is secured. It would be a real shame if the people of Tunisia got to vote on the constitution and probably not democratic at all to boot.