The jurist Sadok Belaïd, in charge of drafting a new Constitution in Tunisia, said on Monday June 6 that he would present to the Head of State a draft charter expunged from any reference to Islam to fight the parties of Islamist inspiration like Ennahdha. The first article of the current Constitution adopted with great fanfare in 2014, three years after the fall of the dictatorship of Zine El Abidine ben Ali, stipulates, like the 1959 Charter, that Tunisia “is a free, independent and sovereign State, Islam is its religion, Arabic its language and the Republic its regime”.
Sadok Belaïd’s remarks are likely to provoke a lively debate in a country with a strong secular tradition but where several Islamist-inspired parties have played a leading role since the 2011 revolt that brought down the Ben Ali regime. Appointed on May 20 as head of the “National Advisory Commission for a New Republic”responsible for drafting a new draft Constitution, Sadok Belaïd indicated that he would submit the draft for validation to President Kaïs Saïed no later than June 15 before it is submitted to a referendum, a consultation announced for July 25.
“80% of Tunisians are against extremism and against the use of religion for political purposes. This is precisely what we are going to do simply by erasing article 1 in its current form.”
Sadok Belaïd, juristat AFP
Asked by AFP if this meant that the new Constitution would not contain any reference to Islam, he replied: “There (will) be none.” And to add: “There is a possibility that we will erase Article 1 in its current version. We can do without mentioning any religion.”
According to Sadok Belaïd, the deletion of any reference to Islam is intended to fight the parties of Islamist inspiration, especially Ennahdha, the main force in the Parliament dissolved by the Tunisian president. “If you use religion for political extremism, well, we will ban it,” sued the 83-year-old academic who claims to have “a very great and very deep friendship and closeness” with Kaïs Saïed whom he had had as a student.
“Ennahdha and other parties are the henchmen of several foreign forces or powers or states or mini-states which have a lot of money which they want to spend as they want and which they use to intervene in the affairs of the country. it’s treason.”
Sadok Belaïd, juristat AFP
After months of political blockage, Kaïs Saïed, democratically elected at the end of 2019, assumed full powers on July 25, 2021 by dismissing the Prime Minister and suspending the Parliament dominated by Ennahdha, his pet peeve, before dissolving it in March .
In a roadmap supposed to end the crisis, the Tunisian president announced a referendum on a new Constitution on July 25, 2022, before legislative elections on December 17. The commission headed by Sadok Belaïd is working to draw up the new Constitution through a “national dialogue” launched on Saturday June 4, but from which the main parties were excluded. Invited to this dialogue, the powerful Tunisian trade union center UGTT, a key player on the political scene, refused to participate. Kaïs Saïed calls for a diet “more presidential” instead of the hybrid system put in place in 2014 and source of recurring conflicts between the executive and legislative branches.
“The president may have greater powers, or perhaps more useful powers. He only had blocking power and that is very bad. The president is the captain. He is the Admiral. So he must not only have the power to brake but the power to train…with moderation.”
Sadok Belaïd, juristat AFP
Nevertheless, the new regime must be designed in such a way that the president is not “driven or attracted by the temptations of dictatorship, tyranny or abuse of power”, says the lawyer. In a press release, the Ennahdha party again attacks Kaïs Saïed: “The President of the Republic has become a danger to national unity and civil peace because of his speeches which aim to divide the people.”