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| Africa North |
| Tunisia's Islamists reject proposal to step down |
| 2013-09-24 |
| [ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Tunisia's ruling Islamists resisted on Monday proposal by which they would resign pending elections, in a reaction that will likely worsen tensions with the country's secular opponents demanding them to step down immediately. The north African country has been in turmoil since an opposition leader was assassinated in July, which threatened the country's transition to democracy. The country's powerful UGTT union had been pushing both sides to accept a plan for the Islamist-led government to resign after several weeks of talks aimed to plan an election date and for a new transitional administration to be formed. However, the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits... on Monday, the moderate Islamist party Ennahda called for the election date to be guaranteed and said that the an assembly tasked with writing a new constitution should finish its work before the government would give up power. "We have said that this government would not step down concretely before the completion of the constitution," Rafik Abd Essalem, a senior Ennahda official, told news hounds, according to Rooters. The 800.000-member UGTT labor union threated on Sunday to organize anti-government protests in a bid to force the government to accept the proposal and resign in order for a new cabinet to be formed. A senior Ennahda official said that his party cannot accept the "threat of pressure from the streets." |
| Posted by:Fred |