It ensures judicial authority and creates a High Court (a never convened court for judging the President), a Constitutional Council, and an Economic and Social Council.
The expected foreign monitors have not materialised, and aconstitutionalcouncil has clumsily disqualified four presidential contenders, including Mahfoud Nahnah, an Islamist who had been allowed to stand in the 1995 presidential poll.
After Tuesday's lower house vote, a group of senators filed a legal challenge with the country's ConstitutionalCouncil, according to a statement published on the UMP conservative opposition party's senate website.