Bin Ali vows transparency, referendums as democratic tool

Tunisian President Zein al-Abidin Bin Ali has vowed to have complete transparency and honoring the law in various steps of the referendum on constitutional reforms to be held on May 26.

In a speech he delivered on Sunday marking the beginning of the referendum campaign, Bin Ali explained "the referendum is the most sublime form of practicing democracy.. It is one characteristics of people's progress and maturity."

He indicated that this " constitutional" reform will furnish for the foundation of the republic of tomorrow which embodies "loyalty to the martyrs of April 1938 and the principles on which the reform and liberation movement was established and the spirit established by the founders in the constitution of the country in 1959, foremost being the late President al-Habib Bourgiba, the first President for the Tunisian Republic."