Tunisia delays post-Ben Ali elections for three month

Conditions are 'not yet right' for the first vote since the overthrow of the country¿s autocratic president, Tunisia's prime minister has announced.

TUNIS // Tunisia will hold an election October 23, not in July as planned, because conditions are not yet right for the first vote since the overthrow of the country's autocratic president, the prime minister announced yesterday.

Tunisia's fledgling experiment with democracy is being closely watched around the world because the popular uprising in the North African country sparked pro-democracy revolts around the Middle East.

The success or failure of elections in Tunisia would send a strong signal to other nations in the region.

Prime minister Beji Caid Essebsi said after announcing the new election date: "The world is watching us. Tunisia today has an extraordinary image because its revolution happened peacefully, without weapons.

"The wind of freedom has blown through other countries, but we will be the only ones to succeed in putting into place a democratic government," he added, implicitly referring to the fighting in Libya, Yemen and Syria.

The elections had been planned for July 24, but Tunisia's electoral commission proposed last month that they be postponed, saying much more needed to be done to organise the vote, including updating voter registration rolls.

Those in favour of the July date had said it was important the vote go ahead to bring political stability to a country now experiencing simmering tensions and occasional deadly eruptions of violence.

Me Essebsi said the most important thing was to hold "free, transparent and credible" elections. The vote is for a constituent assembly to write a new constitution that would pave the way for legislative and presidential elections.

Tunisia's nascent political movements have said they need more time to prepare for elections in a country that was dominated for decades by the ruling party and heavy-handed security forces of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Under Mr Ben Ali's 23-year-reign, a single party known as the RCD, which is now officially dissolved, controlled the country. Opposition parties in parliament were largely symbolic.

The regime was finally brought down by a month of popular demonstrations that forced Ben Ali and his family to flee for Saudi Arabia on January 14, ushering in a period of uncertainty for this country of 10 million.

Once one of the most tightly controlled dictatorships in the region, Tunisia has witnessed an explosion of new political movements, with 81 new parties officially registered.

The electoral commission has noted "numerous shortcomings and deficiencies" in the organisation of the election, including 3 million Tunisians not in the electoral database and hundreds of thousands of others without valid identity cards.

The new assembly will decide, among other things, whether Tunisia gets a presidential or parliamentary system, and whether separation of religion and state becomes part of the law.

Since Mr Ben Ali's departure, the country has continued to be wracked by protests, often by activists fearing a counter-revolution and trying to keep pressure on the government to enact reforms.

On Tuesday, the official news agency said former presidential party members were involved in clashes in south-western Tunisia that left 11 dead. Quoting unidentified security forces, the TAP agency said members of the RCD were among 105 people arrested near the town of Metlaoui.

The international community has expressed its support for Tunisia's transition to democracy and at the recent G8 summit promised billions of dollars in economic aid over the next three years.