Chamber of Deputies' 12th legislature starts.

BARDO, Nov. 10, 2009 (TAP) - The first session of the 12th legislative term of the Chamber of Deputies opened, on Tuesday in Bardo, under chairmanship of Mr. Abdallah Abaab, the oldest MP, and Messrs. Aymen Nagra and Mohamed Sakher el Materi, the youngest ones who took the oath of office.

During this session, Mr. Foued Mebazaa was re-elected as Speaker of the Chamber, Mr. Sahbi Karoui was elected as first deputy-Speaker and Mrs. Habiba Ben Amara el Massaabi, second deputy-Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies.

During this session, the final list of MPs, established by the Constitutional Council under its decision of October 30, 2009, was read out.

Members of parliament took the oath in an alphabetical order, in accordance with the provisions of Paragraph 6 of Article 1 of the internal regulations of the Chamber of Deputies.

The deputies then elected the vote counting and vote control commission.

Mr. Foued Mebazaa expressed gratitude to President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali for having endorsed his candidacy for the Chamber of Deputies and his chairmanship for a new term.

He underlined that the elections had been held in total compliance with the law, in a festive atmosphere and a pluralistic and democratic environment, reflecting the quality change in Tunisian citizens' interaction with national political events and their keenness to make their voices heard in freedom, transparency and respect of regulatory provisions.

Besides, the deputies announced make-up of the parliamentary groups and the distribution of the commissions' seats, in implementation of the new provisions of Article 29 of the Chamber of Deputies' internal regulations.

Mr. Foued Mebazaa announced that the Chamber had received three declarations from three parliamentary groups, each of which having obtained 5% or more from the total number of seats, the latter standing at 214.

These parliamentary groups are: the Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD) group, 161 MPs led by Mohamed Souayeh, the Socialist Democrats Movement (MDS) parliamentary group, with 16 MPs headed by Mr. Ismail Boulehia, and the People's Unity Party (PUP) group, with its 12 MPs led by Deputy Hichem El Hajji.

He also specified that, by virtue of these results and in implementation of the proportional rule in representation of groups in commissions, the number of seats for each commission will be distributed according to the number of seats obtained out of the total number of seats.

Seats in parliamentary commissions will be shared out as follows:

Speaker of the Chamber pointed out that, as regards the parties which did not manage to make up parliamentary groups and as part of the proportional rule, distribution of their seats within permanent commissions will be as follows:

As regards the parliamentary immunity commission, Mr. Mebazaa announced that the sharing out of seats will be as follows:

Works of the Chamber will be resumed, on Wednesday, with the election of the commissions members.

Tap 2009

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