(01.07.) But the debate, which began at around 1000 GMT, was suspended after less than half an hour when the presentation by the head of the drafting committee, Islamist MP Habib Kheder, was interrupted by the shouts of opposition MPs who accuse him of introducing controversial articles in a discretionary manner.

Those articles exempt laws adopted under the ruling Islamist party Ennahda — which won legislative elections in October 2011 — from constitutional control for three years.

They would also extend indefinitely the legislative powers of the National Assembly and fail to draw up an electoral calendar to replace it with a permanent parliament.