Members of the ruling coalition threatened that they would “push forward” with the constitution and electoral law in the National Constituent Assembly without the opposition should protests continue and political talks fail to materialize.
“We want these sides to realize that they cannot impose a solution from the street,” Tarek Kahlaoui of the Congress for the Republic, President Moncef Marzouki’s party, said.
“We are studying this option,” Ennahdha NCA member Osama Al Saghir said, adding that with 160 members participating in the NCA, the coalition parties have a quorum and could legally pass the constitution and electoral law.
Al Saghir and Kahlaoui also criticized the UGTT, the country’s largest labor union and political broker, echoing an Ennahdha press conference yesterday that said the union was not acting impartially.
The union has promoted itself as a mediator and has conducted shuttle diplomacy between opposition and coalition leaders since the escalation of political tensions in July.
The criticism comes as the union pushes forward with protests this week, a move that Al Saghir called “not helpful.”
“The union is not a neutral mediator,” he said.
The UGTT called for “gatherings” of union supporters this week in a press conference last Saturday, but with opposition parties telling their own supporters to attend, the demonstrations appeared to be a show of strength.
“It’s not appropriate for a mediator to take these things into the street,” Kahlaoui, who works for the Tunisian Institute for Strategic Studies, a publicly funded think tank affiliated with the presidency, said, referring to the UGTT’s call for protests issued last Saturday.
“We want the UGTT to be a neutral mediator, they are a major institution in this history of the country, they should be part of the solution,” said Kahlaoui.
The UGTT and the opposition, Kahlaoui said, “no longer have a relationship of a mediator and the opposition, they are on the same side.”
Opposition parties and the UGTT have criticized Ennahdha and its coalition partners for not fully accepting the union’s roadmap, which it set out last Tuesday.
The ruling coalition has repeatedly claimed to accept the union’s initiative, but acknowledges that its idea about the conditions under which the government will resign differs from the roadmap.
For the ruling coalition, the current government’s resignation, according to Kahlaoui, is “conditional” upon the NCA passing a new constitution and making preparations for elections.
“We want the NCA to finish as soon as possible,” Kahlaoui said.
The ruling coalition says that as long as the constitution is passed and preparations for elections are completed, the government could resign sooner than the union’s proposed three week deadline.
“We support a two week timeline if possible,” Kahlaoui said.
Al Saghir accused the opposition of trying to oust the current government and delay elections, saying that they want a new, interim, technocratic government to rule for two to three years.
The ruling coalition’s rejection of calendar deadlines, according to Rafaa Ben Achour of Nidaa Tounes, is evidence that they seek to stay in power longer.
“We have already made concessions,” Ben Achour said. The opposition, before it accepted the UGTT’s three week deadline for the government’s resignation, had demanded its immediate ouster as a precondition for talks.
Nidaa Tounes leader Beji Caid Essebsi, however, has met with Ennahdha leader Rached Ghannouchi on at least two occasions since tensions escalated in July.
Notably, while the two sides seem to be far apart on the conditions for the government’s resignation, they appear to agree on the future of the NCA.
The UGTT’s roadmap does not include the dissolution of the NCA and representatives from Ennahdha, CPR and Nidaa Tounes all acknowledged that the body will stand until elections bring a new government.
“It [the NCA] validates the legitimacy of the whole political system,” Kahlaoui said.
For the original article see Tunisia Live: http://www.tunisia-live.net/2013/09/25/ruling-parties-willing-to-push-fo...
