Tunisia Steps Closer to New Constitution

A final vote on the country's new charter is set for Saturday

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Tunisia‘s national assembly approved the final articles of Tunisia’s constitution Thursday, and will likely vote to approve the charter on Saturday.

“Finally, we have reached this moment,” Assembly President Mustapha Ben Jaafar said on Thursday, Al Jazeera reports.

The country’s new constitution is set for approval three years after an uprising against its former leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali sparked off the Arab Spring. The passage of the constitution was stalled over disagreements between Islamists and secular leaders, but tensions have eased since Tunisia’s prime minister Ali Laraydeh stepped down on Jan 9. Laraydeh was of the ruling Islamist party Ennahda and left office in an effort to end the deadlock.

New prime minister Mehdi Jomaa has pledged to appoint a non-partisan cabinet once the constitution is approved.

[Al Jazeera]