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afrol News, 1 June - Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on Saturday signed the constitutional reform bill, which was approved in a national referendum one week ago. The amendment did away with limiting presidential terms, letting President Ben Ali run for presidency again. The referendum, which was the first ever in Tunisia's history, was a give and take deal. While the limitation of presidential terms was eliminated, it defines a maximum age of 75 years for any candidate to the presidential office. On the other hand, the constitutional changes also include wider civil liberties and public freedoms, strengthening oversight over the constitutionality of laws and increasing the transparency of the electoral process, according to the Tunisian press agency. "Changes also introduce into the constitution additional guarantees regarding the pre-trial and preventive custody of defendants," the agency informs, saying human rights will be further secured by the amendments. Human rights groups have been registering an increasing rate of rights violations in Tunisia over the last years, especially in terms of press freedom and arbitrary detentions. There has been increasing external pressure to improve the human rights situation in the country, especially from the European Union. The Tunisian opposition was split on the referendum process. Two parties boycotted the referendum altogether. Four parties participated in the campaigning against the amendments. According to official numbers, however, the 26 May referendum produced a landslide victory for the constitutional amendments. 99.5 percent had voted in favour and only 0.5 percent had voted against the amendments. The turnout had been as high as 96.15 percent. Answering a question regarding the high rate of votes in favour of the amendments, the Tunisian Minister of the Interior commented that such results "do not surprise Tunisians and should not surprise foreigners as they reflect a Tunisian reality with all its specificities, historic dimensions, and social and political features." He did not elaborate. After President Ben Ali now has signed the constitutional reform bill, the next step is to prepare the necessary legal texts and other measures in order to implement the reforms and changes stipulated by the constitutional reform.
Sources: Based on Tunisian press reports and afrol archives
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