Tunisia to elect 'constituent team' - Africa. Tunisia will hold an election on July 24 to choose a constituent assembly that will rewrite the constitution and chart the country's transition after the ousting of its veteran leader, the interim president said. In a televised speech late on Thursday, interim president Fouad Mebazza, who has been in charge since Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was toppled on January 14, said he and a caretaker government would stay in power until the election was held. "We are proclaiming today that we are entering a new era ... and a new political system which definitively breaks with the ousted regime," Mebazza said.
Mebazza said the July 24 vote would be for the "formation of a national constituent assembly that will develop a new constitution. " He said the current constitution "does not meet the aspirations of the people after the revolution" and was "an obstacle to transparent elections", adding he would remain in office until the July 24 vote. Positive reactions Civil groups welcomed the announcement. Tunis police use tear gas to disperse demonstrators.
26 February 2011Last updated at 21:34 The BBC's Paul Moss in Tunis says the situation there is "very serious indeed" Three people have been killed in clashes between hundreds of demonstrators and security forces in the Tunisian capital, authorities say. Police used tear gas, batons and live ammunition to disperse demonstrators outside the interior ministry in Tunis.
Police and masked men in civilian clothes, armed with sticks, moved through streets looking for protesters. The protest comes a day after police cleared huge crowds from the streets demanding the prime minister resign. That was the biggest rally since President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fled after weeks of unrest.
The fighting went on for several hours on Saturday, as protesters tried to storm the interior ministry, right in the centre of Tunis, and police repeatedly repelled their attacks, says the BBC's Paul Moss in Tunis. The statement added more than 100 people were arrested on Saturday and almost 90 had been arrested on Friday. Egyptians and Tunisians Collaborated to Shake Arab History. Holly Pickett for The New York Times Tunis, Jan. 14 Demonstrators climbed the walls of the Interior Ministry as thousands gathered outside to demand the resignation of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.
The protests that brought down Mr. Ben Ali that day began on Facebook. The exchange on was part of a remarkable two-year collaboration that has given birth to a new force in the Arab world — a pan-Arab youth movement dedicated to spreading democracy in a region without it. They fused their secular expertise in social networks with a discipline culled from religious movements and combined the energy of soccer fans with the sophistication of surgeons. As their swelling protests shook the Egyptian state, they were locked in a virtual tug of war with a leader with a very different vision — Gamal Mubarak, the son of President , a wealthy investment banker and ruling-party power broker.
The defiant tone of the president’s speech on Thursday, the officials said, was largely his son’s work. Tunisians sceptical of new cabinet - Africa. The announcement of a new 'unity government' by Mohamed Ghannouchi, the Tunisian prime minister, has been met with anger by some protesters, who say too many members of ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's party remain in power. The PM announced that the former defence, foreign, interior and finance ministers will keep their key posts in the new government formed after the public uprising led to the flight of President Ben Ali.
Up to 1,000 protesters gathered mainly near Tunis' Habib Bourguiba Avenue to demonstrate against the announcement. Tanks and troops were deployed, and water cannons and tear gas fired against activists who demanded that members of Ben Ali's Constitutional Democratic Rally (CDR) be excluded from the new government. "Who did the revolt? It's the people, those trade union leaders ... they need to find their aspirations in the government. This government does not answer those aspirations," Masoud Ramadani, a workers union activist, told Al Jazeera.