National Constituent Assembly Votes Against 2013 Presidency Budget

Tunisian National Constituent Assembly

The National Constituent Assembly (NCA) adopted in yesterday’s plenary session 29 chapters of the state budget for 2013, with the exception of a chapter that comprises the Presidency’s budget, said Amel Gouil, an NCA member affiliated with Ennahdha ruling party.

According to the official news agency TAP, the budget of the Ministry of Education accounted for the lion’s share of the 2013 state budget, with 3.5 billion dinars.

The budget of the presidency had been set at 79.3 million dinars in 2013, an increase of 7.3% compared to 2012, but it was not adopted by the NCA

Souad Abderahim, an NCA member affiliated with Ennahdha, said she believed that the 2013 budget allocated to the president was refused because the presidential tasks of Moncef Marzouki have diminished compared to 2012.

But some NCA members affiliated with the Congress for the Republic (CPR) said they believed the vote of the ruling Ennahdha party members against the draft budget for the presidency was intended to show their discontent with the recent statements made by the Marzouki, reported Mosaique Fm.
“The issue has become politicized,” said Haithem Belgasem an NCA representative affiliated with CPR. “The budget was denied, because of Marzouki’s recent political positions.”

Belgasem added that NCA members flip flopped in voting for the budget of the Office of the Prime Minister and against that of the presidency.
Abderahim, on her part, said that the vote was independent and spontaneous.

“NCA representatives voted without programming. We did not meet before the plenary session and the vote was unprompted,” she said.