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GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
If we look at the problems of government in the independent
countries of North Africa in an order of ascending difficulties,
we find that Tunisia made the transition from dependence to
independence with a minimum of shock and discontinuity, and
has functioned since with remarkable smoothness. Arrange-
ments had already been made during the autonomous period
for elections to a Constituent Assembly and these were held on
March 25, 1956, only five days after Franco-Tunisian protocol
recognizing Tunisia as an independent state had been signed.
The neo-Destour ticket, a national union front grouping to-
gether labor, commercial and agricultural organization, won
an overwhelming victory (97 per cent of the vote). The As-
sembly was convened and Bourguiba elected presiding officer,
but he resigned shortly to become Premier of the first Tunisian
government.
The principal task of the Assembly was to draft a constitu-
tion, but as it got down to work it became evident that there
was strong sentiment among the deputies and throughout the
country to change the regime from a monarchy to a republic.
In fact, the eventual disappearance of the Beylical system hed
long been planned by Destourians and taken for granted by
most Tunisians. There had never been any deep feeling among
the people for it, although it had been accepted without rancor.
But the whole political evolution of Tunisia, from the earliest
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