Tunisia lawmakers start debate on key step in democratic transition

TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisian Islamist and secular parties have begun a parliamentary debate on an election law, the final step before setting a ballot date to complete a transition to democracy in the country that lit the fuse of Arab popular uprisings.

The elections, expected later this year, will be only the second ballot since the 2011 revolt that ousted autocrat Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, and the first since the adoption of a new constitution praised internationally as a democratic model.