TUNIS: Tunisia has set up an independent body crucial for a July election to help decide the country’s post-revolution future after suggestions the vote could be delayed because the timetable was too tight.
The election, scheduled for July 24, will select an assembly to draw up a new Constitution in the North African country after an uprising toppled ruler Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in January.
Tunisia has struggled to restore order since Ben Ali’s ousting and Prime Minister Beji Caid Sebsi has raised the possibility that the vote may be postponed because of technical difficulties.
Any delay could ignite large protests against the government by people who fear the interim administration will fail to guide Tunisia toward democracy after decades of autocratic rule.
It could also spell more trouble for Tunisia’s economy which lacks the oil and gas resources of its neighbors. Tunisia says it needs billions of dollars in foreign loans to help it emerge from the turmoil which has hit the job market and tourism.
The creation of the independent electoral body to oversee the vote suggests a step in the right direction. The TAP news agency said 13 people had been chosen late Monday to serve on the committee, including lawyers, accountants and university representatives.
Tension has been running high in the countdown to the vote.
Police in Tunis used tear gas to break up a fourth day of demonstrations by scores of youths Sunday, despite a night curfew aimed at keeping order. The capital however has been calm since Monday.
Separately, the official TAP news agency reported Tuesday that drugs, jewelry, archeological pieces and a gun were stashed at a palace in Carthage that belonged to Ben Ali.
The discovery was made by a national commission charged with investigating corruption and embezzlement during his 23-year presidency.
The find, made three days ago, included 40 grams of a substance that is “probably narcotics,” jewelry stored in 169 envelopes, archeological pieces of “important value,” and an American made machine gun, according to a statement. Investigators also found $18,000.
On March 10, Tunisia’s justice minister announced the discovery of two kilograms of narcotics in the president’s private office in Carthage.
The corruption commission previously said it found $27 million at a Ben Ali palace in Sidi Bou Said, in the wealthy suburbs north of Tunis.
The recent palace inspection was conducted in the presence of representatives from the Culture Ministry, and the Treasury, the statement said.
Ben Ali and his wife Leila Trabelsi were in May charged with “plotting against the internal security of the state,” as well as murder and graft.
In April, the country’s justice minister said the government was trying to have Ben Ali extradited from Saudi Arabia where he fled in mid-January.