Tunisia's embattled Constituent Assembly has been suspended indefinitely, ahead of planned mass protests calling for the body to be dissolved, its speaker said.
The latest twist came on Tuesday as hundreds of demonstrators started to gather outside the assembly building for a mass rally called by the opposition aimed at pressuring the government to step down.
The head of the Constituent Assembly and Secretary General of the centre-left party Ettakatol Mustafa Ben Jaffar announced to the nation on Tuesday that the constituent assembly or parliament would be suspended.
"I assume my responsibility as president of the ANC [assembly] and suspend its work until the start of a dialogue, in the service of Tunisia," he said on state television.
He was referring to a crisis sparked by the assassination of an opposition figure that has already prompted many opposition members to boycott the assembly's sessions.
The assembly was only weeks away from finishing a draft constitution and electoral law that would move the country closer to new elections.
The country's secular opposition is trying to oust the Islamist Ennahda-led government and dissolve the transitional Assembly.
Protests have been held daily since the killing of leftist politician and Assembly member Mohamed Brahmi on July 25, nearly six months after another leftist figure was gunned down.
More than 70 members of the assembly withdrew two weeks ago in protest at the two killings and organised a sit-in outside the assembly headquarters.
The Constituent Assembly met on Tuesday morning despite the absence of protesting lawmakers.
Tunisians are facing the worst political crisis since the toppling of autocratic ruler Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, in a revolt that sparked uprisings across the Arab world.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/08/201386182710616526.html
