Tunisia's draft constitution by end July

Badr al-Din Abdul Kafi, the vice president of the National Constituent Assembly in charge of relations with citizens and civil society said that the first draft of the constitution will be ready by the end of July. Badr al-Din Abdul Kafi, in a statement to Arabstoday on the sidelines of Saturday's participation in the national dialogue conference on the drafting of the constitution organised by the Centre for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID), said that the first draft of the constitution will be completed by the end of this month. Abdul Kafi said that the revolution helped in searching for a new constitution compatible with the development of the society while the Tunisian president, Mocef Marzouki said: "My answer is clear; Tunisia must comply with international obligations, and we should now more than ever comply with human rights. All our partners certainly defend the honour of Tunisia and its national security interests… differences have occurred, which is normal between brothers and friends, and it surely occurs between political allies facing difficult choices.” The Tunisian President continued: "In order to fix this, I have consulted political and human rights organisations in the country to make the best decisions which serve the interests of Tunisia." Marzouki also called on the Tunisian people not to be afraid of political crises as they are constructive. He said the crises will only increase the awareness of the need to work towards the success of democratic change in order to paralyse the remnants of the former regime, which he described as: “insulting the blood of the martyrs with looting, torture, counterfeiting and forgery.” "The Tunisian people should confront the past and not fear the future.” he added. He also stressed the need to revive the Supreme Commission for Elections to do its duty towards the upcoming elections, calling for the need to hasten the municipal elections, scheduled for the summer of 2013, to curb what he called the "state of idleness" in villages and cities.