Den foreskriver bl.a., at der skal være lige mange mænd og kvinder på partiernes opstillingslister, ligesom den nye forfatning tager skridt til at beskytte kvinder mod vold, noget ret uhørt i den arabiske verden – men det vestligt orienterede Tunesien, hvor det Arabiske Forår begyndte, går foran.
Tunisia’s interim parliament has taken one of the last steps towards the country becoming a full democracy by approving a new electoral law, writes BBC online Thursday.
The move comes three years after the popular uprising that forced Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to step down as president, thereby starting the “Arabian Spring”
Debate in the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) was clouded by disagreement over whether officials who served under Ben Ali should be banned from office.
The exclusion measure was eventually rejected by a single vote, however, with the Islamist Ennahda party – which won the elections for the NCA in 2011 – opposing it.
Its main rival, Nidaa Tounes, is led by a former parliamentary speaker under Ben Ali.
“The rejection of political expulsion sends a strong message that our revolution continues, without revenge,” Khemais Kessila of Nidaa Tounes said.
Ennahda formed the first post-Ben Ali government but handed over power to caretaker Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa at the start of the year after the new constitution was approved, under an agreement to end a political crisis triggered by the assassination of two opposition leaders.
Mr Jomaa has ruled himself out as a candidate in the forthcoming elections, for which officials have said they will need between six and eight months to prepare. One clause of the electoral law imposes male-female parity in party lists.
