Tunisia's parliament holds first session, Marzouki absent

Questions were raised in Tunisia’s local media and social networking sites over why President Moncef Marzouki was not invited to attend the new parliament’s inaugural session held yesterday.

The President of the Constituent Assembly Mustapha Ben Jafar said Marzouki was not invited for reasons related to “protocol, not politics”.

The Tunisian presidency’s media spokesperson Shaker Bouguila said that the president was not invited to the opening session.

In a statement, he told the Anadolu Agency that Marzouki was not invited in his capacity as the President of the Republic of Tunisia by the National Constituent Assembly’s Office despite a law necessitating this procedure.

The law regulating public authorities, which is often referred to as the Small Constitution, was passed in 2011 after the suspension of the old constitution and before the approval of the new constitution.

Jafar said that handing over the legislative authority to a new legislature does not require the presence of the president by tradition.

Marzouki’s campaign manager Adnan Mancer wrote on Facebook: “According to the provisional regulation, which is still valid, the president cannot go to parliament without an invitation. Many know that, but they act as if they do not know.”

The new Tunisian parliament, which is the first since the January 2011 revolution, held its opening session yesterday. The president and two deputies will be subsequently elected.

The opening session was attended by the new members of parliament, in addition to the members of the government headed by Mehdi Jomaa, political figures, and the heads of the Tunisian political parties.