Tunisia: a great response to reforming the constitution
Tunisia, Politics, 3/19/2002

Tunisia is involving its citizens in an information campaign and political debate to be followed by a referendum, a process by which citizens directly approve or reject new laws or proposals, in order to amend Tunisia's constitution.

The fundamental reform proposal on the Tunisian constitution adopted by the Tunisian President Zein al-Abidin Bin Ali has won the interest of all circles in the country. This initiative witnessed a vast welcome from citizens especially that the decision was made to debate this plan before the public and to place this referendum before the citizens for voting for the first time in Tunisia.

On Saturday, the Tunisian democratic constitutional coalition party launched a campaign in order to amend the constitution. The officials of the said party started touring various parts of the country to explain the importance of implementing the proposed constitutional reforms which was proposed to the Parliament in February in order to be approved before bringing it to referendum.

The opposition parties and national organizations and societies welcomed this plan in which it found a new way of development, especially as it comes up with several principles and values into the constitutional base, like strengthening human rights and consolidating national solidarity values and enhancing loyalty and commitment to Tunisia, revitalizing the relation between the government and the legislative authority and organizing the Presidential elections.

In addition to the support given to the plan by the coalition party, it was also backed by a vast base of social forces and citizens such as the Tunisian federation for industry, commerce and traditional industries, the Tunisian peasantry Union and the general federation for labor in Tunisia and the national union of the Tunisian woman.

It is worth noting that most recently, the Arab state of Bahrain also used the referendum process to adopt major democratic changes to its constitution.

Previous Stories:
  Bin Ali wants citizens' approval to amend the Tunisian constitution   (3/1/2002)
  Al-Assad confers with Tunisian, Lebanese officials   (1/30/2002)
  Tunisian president stresses protection of human rights, freedoms   (12/12/2001)

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