All major opposition parties and two of the three parties in Tunisia’s governing coalition today signed a roadmap agreement intended to lead the country out of its nearly ten-week political crisis.
A member of the ruling coalition, however, refused to sign the document today.
The roadmap plan drafted by a group of civil society organizations calls for government and political leaders to meet for direct negotiations, and mandates that the current government resign three weeks from the first session of talks in favor of group of technocratic leaders to be chosen during the dialogue.
Leaders of Ennahdha, the largest party in the ruling coalition, and Ettakatol, one of its governing partners, both signed the agreement at a ceremony today in Tunis. Most opposition parties, including Nidaa Tounes and members of the Popular Front coalition, also signed on.
In a statement released today, Ennahdha referred to a “modified” version of the agreement being signed at the ceremony, but it was not immediately clear what has been changed from the existing proposal.
Houcine Abbassi, leader of the UGTT labor union, which created the roadmap along with three other civil society organizations, indicated that if the agreement were not signed during the ceremony today, signatures would be accepted later. He said this could be later today or tomorrow morning, but did not specifically mention a deadline.
Some parties appeared to welcome the delay.
While President Moncef Marzouki attended the ceremony and spoke in support of the roadmap, the CPR party he co-founded did not sign the agreement during the event. Party leader Imed Daimi instead indicated that CPR would review the agreement.
CPR “was isolated from the dual dialogue between the UGTT and Ennahdha that took place this morning,” Daimi said after the ceremony. He said that today was supposed to be the start of a dialogue, not the simple signing of a document.
The small Mahaba party also refused to sign during the ceremony. Radio station Express FM reported that the Reform and Justice party also refrained, and that two other small parties did not attend today’s ceremony.
Belgacem Ayari of UGTT announced that the first dialogue session would begin at 10:00 a.m. Monday, and that the dialogue would proceed regardless of whether the remaining parties signed on.
For some time this morning, it was unclear whether the conference would actually begin.
It was scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m., but with few politicians in attendance, reports began to circle the conference hall that disagreements persisted, including about whether the agreement should be signed before or after the first session of direct talks. At around noon, the event finally began.
For original article see: http://www.tunisia-live.net/2013/10/05/ennahdha-and-major-opposition-par...
