13/10 18h32by Kaouther Larbi and Sofia Bouderbala – TUNIS (AFP)
Tunisia’s interim president Foued Mebazaa on Thursday congratulated a top-level council for “succeeding in its mission” of steering through political and electoral reforms as it wound up its work.
Presided by jurist Yahd Ben Achour, the last meeting of the high council was held in Bardo palace, attended by Mebazaa and Prime Minister Beji Caid Essebsi, with police out in force outside, an AFP correspondent said.
Set up after in February, after the dictatorial Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali fled a popular uprising on January after 23 years in power, the council was tasked with undertaking political reforms and bringing about a democratic transition. “The high council has succeeded in its mission, notably in setting up the ISIE (electoral commission), Mebazaa said, stating that the body “was present at the most difficult times the country went through”. He commended the hard work of Ben Achour and a council “which encountered differences but also knew how to find a consensus.” “Today we want to reassure the people. “There has been no vacancy in the institutions of state. The government will hand over power to the next government,” he added. Tunisians hold elections on October 23, to vote for a constituent assembly that will draw up a new constitution. Nearly 11,000 candidates are to contest the elections in 27 districts, with opinion polls showing that the profusion has left voters undecided.
During nine months and under a lot of pressure, the steering committee has given the north African country a new electoral code and established rules for the financing of political parties. Ben Achour on several occasions expressed his commitment to success “in the interest of the revolution” and told AFP that “we have pulled off a miracle” in May by drawing up the electoral law in three weeks. The high council succeeded in maintaining contacts with the Islamist party Ennahda, who are favourites in the election, and with the other main political movement, the Democratic Progressist Party (PDP), which is centre-left. But Ennahda several times walked out on high council meetings, accusing the body of taking decisions without consulting all its members. Nejib Chebbi of the PDP for his part accused it of “acting like an elected parliament when its members were appointed.” The council was at the outset a purely technical committee of legal experts charged with revising the laws of the fallen regime, but it was swiftly expanded to include members of all the political movements and of civic groups.
“We have achieved an improbable synthesis of revolutionary logic and institutional logic,” Yadh Ben Achour repeatedly said, expressing his optimism.
The closing ceremony was an important date for Mebazaa, 78, who was made head of state after the fall of Ben Ali and whose mandate will end with the election of the constituent assembly. A former government minister and speaker since 1997 of a parliament which was then a rubber-stamp body for Ben Ali, the moderate Mebazaa in January vowed “a complete break with the past.”
