Tunisia's parliament speaker urges 'peaceful struggle' against president's moves

The speaker of Tunisia's parliament Rached Ghannouchi called Thursday for "peaceful struggle" against a return to "absolute one-man rule. Ghannouchi decribed the situation as "a step back, a decade after Tunisia's 2011 revolution.

"It's a step backwards. A return to the 1959 constitution. A return to the absolute power of one man against which the revolution took place."

"There is no longer any alternative to struggle, naturally a peaceful struggle, because we are a civil movement. The Tunisian people are against violence. We hope that Ennahdha, the other parties and the civil society will fight to recover their constitution and their democracy."

The country's president announced plans to draft a new electoral code and appoint a transitional leadership - and to hang on to the exceptional powers that he seized in July, throwing the country’s young democracy into question.