Tunisia's Popular Petition party to suspend political activities
Hechmi Hamdi, head of the controversial Popular Petition party, announced late Sunday his decision to suspend the party's political activities in Tunisia, the state-run press agency TAP reported Monday.
During the announcement, which was aired on Hamdi's London- based TV channel El Mustakilla, Hamdi said that his decision was justified as he did not receive any excuses from a number of political parties and media outlets in Tunisia, who allegedly launched what he qualified as "a hate and exclusion campaign" against himself and his party.
According to a statement released by Hamdi, the country's new Constituent Assembly, which was tasked with drafting a new constitution, is "devoid of moral and political legitimacy," TAP reported.
The Popular Petition party created a surprise in the polls last month when 26 of its candidates were elected into the country's 217-member Constituent Assembly. But Hamdi was later suspected of strong links with the former ruling Constitutional Democratic Party, and with ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his wife.
The heads of both the country's main Islamist party Ennahdha and the Congress for the Republic have said earlier this month that they would refuse to deal with Popular Petition representatives.
Hamdi did not request his party's representatives in the assembly to withdraw from the assembly or to show solidarity with him. However, nine of the party's representatives decided recently to leave the Popular Petition party to form independent lists, relegating Hamdi's party to the fourth place in the assembly's makeup.
A final agreement on a new government will be announced later on Monday, Tunisian radio said.
The inaugural meeting of the country's Constituent Assembly is due to take place on Tuesday at the former Chamber of Deputies at le Bardo in the capital city of Tunis.
Editor: Bi Mingxin
English.news.cn 2011-11-21 21:31:48 FeedbackPrintRSS
TUNIS, Nov. 21 (Xinhua)
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