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Essebsi: The 2014 constitution implemented ineffectually

March 21, 2018 at 4:04 am

Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi speaks at a press conference in Tunis, Tunisia on 27 December 2017 [Yassine Gaidi/Anadolu Agency]

Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi said on Tuesday that the constitution has been implemented ineffectually because institutions have been implemented ineffectually. In particular Essebsi noted that the Constitutional Court, have not been established yet.

“It is clear that the constitution has not been accomplished and has not been fully respected,” Essebsi said in a speech marking Tunisia’s 62nd anniversary of independence from France at the presidential Palace in Carthage.

“There are constitutional institutions that should have been established in due time. That is, since the first year of ratification of the Constitution (issued in 2014), but this did not happen. This includes the Constitutional Court, which is an important institution,” he said.

According to article 118 of the Tunisian Constitution, the Constitutional Court is an independent judicial body composed of 12 competent members, three quarters of whom are specialists in law and who have at least 20 years of experience in the field.

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Article 120 of the Constitution provides that the Court deals with the constitutionality of bills. Last week, the Tunisian parliament failed to elect members of the first Constitutional Court in Tunisia.

It is noted that political disputes have delayed, for more than two years, the establishment of the court set out in Tunisia’s new constitution issued in 2014. On March 20 each year, Tunisia celebrates its independence from France on the same day in 1956, after 75 years of colonization.