Back Where It All Began

Tunisians celebrate prime minister's ouster

"Less than a minute after Tunisian Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi resigned Sunday in a speech on national television, the massive crowd filling this city's Casbah Square suddenly halted the angry chants that had continued around the clock for days. There was silence, and then cheers, chants and circles of ecstatic dancing."

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"Ghannouchi, 69, quit because he had been unable to overcome his past as part of fallen president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali's government, and the peaceful demonstrations that forced Ben Ali out had turned violent and police seemed unable to control the crowds, according to activists in several newly formed political parties.

"He had to go," said Abdelaziz Belkhodja, a publisher and novelist who is a founder of the new Republican Party here. "But the real worry is that there is so little time to arrange for elections and political structures."

Tunisia's constitution gives the interim government only 60 days to hold an election."

The timing of proposed elections in several of these countries where uprising are taking place is problematic. The weakness of opposition parties is just one of the problems. I hope they find a way through this, otherwise we may witness a "one election, one time" scenario, similar to Gaza, which is NOT democracy.