Tunisia - Ben Jaafar: "A draft constitution will be discussed in November"

According to him, the  blasphemy law or criminalisation of the scared has been ommited, at least in the first draft,Jeune Afrique reports.
 
"There will be no criminalization [blasphemy law ], of course,"  Mustapha Ben Jaafar, whose center-left party Ettakatol is allied with Islamist Ennahdha,said. "It is not because we agree with violations of the sacred, but because the sacred is very very difficult to define," he added.
 
Ennahdha proposed a law against attacks on religion , sparking an outcry among civil society which felt any such law would  be a violation of freedom of expression. According to Mustapha Ben Jaafar, the main sticking point remains the question of the future political makeup of the state, whether as Ennhada wants a parliamentary system or as other parties want a mixed system leaving some powers  with the President.
 
Mr Ben Jaafar felt it was reasonable to expect that elections to be held by the summer of 2013. Part of the opposition especially Beji Caid Essebsi of the Call for Tunisia (Nida Tounes) party feel that the interim government would loose its legitimacy if elections are delayed. Mr Ben Jaafar rejected this. He acknowledged that the government had made mistakes, and that the government “lacked firmness” in its response to radical islamist violence which had tarnished the image of Tunisia internationally, however, these groups were not a danger to democracy, the main danger was a return to the former  dictatorship, he said.