Tunisia Has a Constitution at Last

More than three years after the fall of Ben Ali, Tunisia's Constitutional Assembly has adopted a new constitution, hammered out with difficulty and compromise among the major political parties, including hard bargaining between Islamists and secularists. Unlike Egypt's recently adopted charter, this was hammered out by an elected constituent assembly chosen in November 2011.

The Assembly voted overwhelmingly to adopt the Constitution; if the vote had not been by two-thirds majority it would have gone to a referendum. The vote was 200 yes, 12 no, with four abstentions.