Home > 6 Political parties > TUNISIA - Opinion on the Draft Institutional Law on the Organisation of Political Parties and their Funding
 
 
 
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Paragraph 29
 

The absolute ban on belonging to more than one party at the same time, which is provided for in Article 22 of the draft law and was already in Article 7 of Legislative Decree no. 2011-87, seems too strict. In this connection, the Guidelines point out that “free association is a fundamental right which should not be limited by requirements to only associate with a single organisation” and that laws which limit party membership to a single party “must show compelling reasons for doing so”. However, no such compelling reasons have been given by the authors of the draft law; during the talks in Tunis, they merely indicated that a restriction of this kind would be conducive to greater clarity in the current situation in the country, which was marked by a large number of parties and frequent changes in the political landscape (for example, through party mergers). As it has already stated in this connection, the Venice Commission believes that membership of more than one party “should not be specifically prohibited in law, but rather be left to the individual parties, which should decide whether they see membership in their party as exclusive.The respective provision could, however, require instead that a person cannot be a founding member of more than one political party (as long as both parties are registered and functioning).” It is recommended that Article 22 of the draft law be amended accordingly.