Tunisia’s parliament was Monday debating plans to set April 27 as the deadline for the finalization of the new constitution and October 27 as the date for the next elections, as part of efforts to resolve a political crisis

Tunisia's parliament was Monday debating plans to set April 27 as the deadline for the finalization of the new constitution and October 27 as the date for the next elections, as part of efforts to resolve a political crisis.
  
The deputy speaker of the National Constituent Assembly, Mehrezia Labidi, gave the dates in a posting on her Facebook page, as deputies met to draw up a calendar for the adoption of the constitution, as well as for elections.
  
Labidi, who belongs to the ruling Islamist party Ennahda, did not give a precise timetable for the adoption of the constitution as each article must be approved by an absolute majority of MPs before the entire text is put to a vote.
  
Unless it is approved by a two-thirds majority, it must be put to a referendum. Several political timetables drawn up since Ennahda's sweeping election victory in the first post-revolution poll have not been respected.
  
More than two years after mass protests that toppled former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and inspired revolutions in other Arab Spring countries, Tunisia is still without a fixed political system due to a lack of consensus between the main parties.

Aside from the parliamentary deadlock, Tunisia has been grappling with a political crisis triggered by the killing last month of Chokri Belaid.