“The Parliament will remain suspended until the organization of new elections”, declared the Tunisian president, Monday, December 13. Kais Saied, who had decided to suspend Parliament in July, by assuming full powers, also announced in a speech to the nation, the organization from January 1 of a series of “consultations” popular discussions relating in particular to constitutional and electoral amendments. “New legislative elections will take place on December 17, 2022 on the basis of a new electoral law”, he added.
However, this new law, as well as constitutional amendments, will be drawn up within the framework of popular consultations that will take place. “from January 1 to March 20”. “Constitutional and other reforms will be submitted to referendum on July 25, 2022, the anniversary of the proclamation of the Republic”, he added.
Elected by universal suffrage at the end of 2019, the Tunisian president invoked on July 25 a “imminent peril” to dismiss the Prime Minister, suspend the activities of Parliament and take back the judiciary in hand, repeating over and over again that the current Constitution, which in 2014 established a rather parliamentary hybrid system, is dysfunctional. Thus, before appointing, in October, an academic without political experience, Najla Bouden, at the head of a new government enjoying considerably reduced prerogatives, Kais Saied had promulgated, on September 22, a decree which formalized the suspension of several chapters. of the Constitution.
By suspending Parliament, Kais Saied had removed from power the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party, the main parliamentary force and pillar of successive government coalitions since the fall of the regime of Zine El Abidine ben Ali, overthrown in 2011.
After the president’s coup in July, Tunisian and international organizations criticized a “grabbing of power” and said they feared for public rights and freedoms. His detractors accused him of leading a “Rebellion“. “What coup are they talking about? They also talk about the power of one man and the attack on freedoms, but who has been arrested or prosecuted for expressing his opinions or for demonstrating.”, he defended himself in his speech.
“There will never be a turning back”, he hammered, while a few days before this speech, the ambassadors of the member countries of the G7 and of the European Union (EU) in Tunisia called for a return “fast” democratic institutions in the country.