Elections for parliament and the presidency have been pushed back. The interim government has announced an election will be held on July 24th for a national constituent assembly, which will rewrite the constitution and prepare for parliamentary and presidential elections at a later, and as yet unspecified, date. No less than 20 political parties are now in discussions over how to proceed with organising elections. Likely candidates for the presidency include leaders of the main opposition parties, exiled leaders from parties that were banned by Mr Ben Ali and independents. In previous elections, opposition parties were not free to campaign to a degree that would threaten the RCD. (In fact, in large cities such as the capital, Tunis, Sfax and Sousse, opposition parties were banned from campaigning.) The current parliament has not been dissolved but is, in reality, powerless since the speaker of parliament, Foued Mebazaa, has the power to rule by decree. The government will need to change the constitution, which contains tailor-made amendments by Mr Ben Ali that made it virtually impossible for a non-RCD member to stand for president. Candidates had either to obtain the endorsement of 30 members of parliament (most members of which were from the RCD) or to have served for two years as leader of a legally recognised party by election day. This automatically disqualified leaders such as Ahmed Najib Chebbi of the Parti démocratique progressiste, who is likely to be one of the leading candidates in the forthcoming presidential election.