Referendum to settle debate over Tunisian ruling system

Tunisia's constituent assembly   Tunis – Nabil Zaghdoud   The parliamentary blocs in Tunisia’s National Constituent Assembly have failed to agree on a government system that will be adopted in the new constitution. The ruling Ennahda party strongly backs the parliamentary system which relies on an elected parliament with one chamber, which then elects the President of the Republic who appoints the prime minister from the parliamentary majority. The parliament has legislative power.
Ennahda MP, Osama el-Shagheyr, told Arabstoday that the parliamentary system is capable of establishing the rules of democracy and ensuring the stability needed for governments to work. “The country has really suffered from tyranny and corruption. A parliamentary system gives a central role to the legislative power and reduces the likelihood of a power monopoly," el-Sheghayr said.
During Ennahda’s ninth annual party conference, the Islamic ruling movement had chosen the parliamentary system to rule the country - rather than an amended parliamentary system as sought by Ennahda partners in the ruling coalition.
Sources within the movement further discussed the adoption of the amended parliamentary system, especially since many of its leaders, notably Sheikh Abdul Fattah Moro, disagreed with the approach.
Moro told Arabstoday that Tunisia was in need of an amended presidential system, and that the parliamentary system was not possible because it required powerful parties and a country with a democratic history, such as Britain. Tunisia and its parties are still very new.
Ennahda’s partners in the ruling coalition (the Democratic Forum for Labour and Liberties and the Congress for the Republic) support the opinion of Sheikh Abdul Fattah Moro. In a statement to Arabstoday, Moldi Riahi, head of the Democratic Forum in the Constituent Assembly, said: "The best political system suited to the country is the amended presidential system which ensures the balance between the posts of the president and the prime minister.”
For its part, the Congress for the Republic Party, the second partner in the ruling coalition, believes that the political system of the future must be based on the distribution of powers within the executive authority between the president and the prime minister under a presidential system in order to establish a balanced state of citizenship.
On the 55th anniversary of the commemoration of the Tunisian Republic, new President Moncef Marzouki, the founder of Congress for the Republic, rejected the adoption of a parliamentary system in Tunisia, expressing his commitment to "the dual system that ensures a balance between the heads of the executive authority and protects against the return of tyranny.”
Marzouqi stressed that the parliamentary system turns into a totalitarian regime as a result of the hegemony factor and the predominance of the majority party.
The opposition Democratic Bloc has refused to adopt the parliamentary system, which it says can succeed only in countries with a democratic history. The Bloc MP Samir Baltyeb informed Arabstoday that the majority of the parties back the presidential system, in which the president has more power than parliament.
Some constitutional law experts believed that the dispute about the nature of the system is the wrong approach.
A professor in constitutional law at the University of Tunisia, Qais Saeed, said: "the argument is wrong because the target is not a specific system that places the regime in a particular box, when the primary goal is based on balance between powers."
“Balance between powers can not be achieved by separation but by pluralism. This debate should not be subjected to political conflicts and societal polarisation, because it is not a technical issue, "he said.
In case of the continuation of this controversy within the committees of the National Constituent Assembly, the issue will be postponed to a general session, but it fails, a referendum will be held for the people to have the final word in determining the nature of the system which will be stated in the new constitution.
Meanwhile, Tunisian police fired warning shots and tear gas on Thursday to disperse protesters who attacked provincial government headquarters in the town where the country’s revolution was born, an AFP correspondent witnessed.
Dozens of people, angry over their living conditions, converged on the building in Sidi Bouzid and set fire to a tyre, which they threw inside.
Police responded with warning shots and tear gas, as demonstrators shouted “Ben Ali’s police are back,” in reference to the long-time dictator driven from office last year by a popular revolt.
The uprising against Zine El Abidine Ben Ali touched off a wave of political unrest across North Africa and the Middle East dubbed the Arab Spring. It was sparked when a street vendor in Sidi Bouzid, Mohamed Bouazizi, immolated himself in protest over his own precarious livelihood.
The interior ministry confirmed that the violence had occurred, but spokesman Khaled Tarouch denied that warning shots had been fired.
“Police only fired tear-gas grenades to disperse the people who had attacked the government headquarters with rocks,” he said.
The ministry said about 150 people, day workers demanding to be paid, were involved. Union sources said more than 1000 people took part.
The workers, who had not received their wages in several weeks, had been protesting peacefully for a number of days until being egged on by relatives and residents.
An Ennahda spokesman deplored the sacking of the party’s offices by what he called “a group of demonstrators manipulated by political parties,” which he did not name.