Statement by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan on the National Constituent Assembly Election in Tunisia

October 24, 2011
Japanese

On Sunday, October 23, an election was held in Tunisia for the National Constituent Assembly (NCA). Japan welcomes this event as the first step in the country’s process of democratization.
In order to support Tunisia’s reform and democratization efforts on the occasion of this election, Japan dispatched an election monitoring team headed by Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Kazuyuki Hamada. According to the team’s report, citizens at all the observation points monitored by the team participated enthusiastically in the election, and overall voting activities progressed without any major disorder.
Japan anticipates that the process of transition following the NCA election will be smoothly implemented, and that this will lead to important advancements in the democratization of Tunisia ensued by the democratization of the Middle East and North Africa.

(*The foregoing is a provisional translation. The date indicated above denotes the date of issue of the original press release in Japanese.)

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