Tunisia's Constitutional Assembly began on Monday the discussion of a new constitution draft which was ratified by the assembly's speaker last month.

The plenary session dedicated to discuss the constitution project was attended by Foued Mbazaa, former president of the republic; Rached Ghannouchi, head of the "Ennahdha" majority party; Justice Minister Nadhir Ben Ammou; and Mustapha Filali, speaker of the country's first 1956 Constitutional Assembly.

During the speech of the constitution's general rapporteur, Habib Khedher, a number of opposition members strongly contested the proposed draft, pushing for a more consensual version presented by various committees entrusted with drafting the law.

This dispute forced the 217-member Assembly's speaker Mustapha Ben Jaafar to interrupt the proceeding and postpone the discussion sine die, while the Assembly's chairperson Meherzia Laabidi slammed in a statement the opposition representatives for " opposing the country's general interest."

Meanwhile, outside the assembly's building, tens of left-wing militants, mostly from the Popular Front Coalition, shouted anti- Ennahdha slogans and denounced the current draft.

Also a number of political commentators criticized those who drafted the new constitution, which they consider a "dictatorial project" that threatens individual and collective liberties.

Last week, another heated debate during the voting of a bill to protect the revolution was also postponed to a later hearing by the assembly's speaker.

The project gathers the support of the leading Islamic party Ennahdha, along with two other parties of the ruling coalition, but is fiercely opposed by the more secularist parties who see it as "an attempt to block" the way for Nida Tounes, Ennahdha's strongest contender.