TUNIS (Reuters) – Thousands of Tunisians demonstrated in the capital on Saturday to protest against President Kais Saied’s intention to push through a referendum on a new constitution that would strengthen his powers.
The rally organized at the call of Abir Moussi, president of the Free Destourian Party, reflects growing resistance to the authoritarianism of the Tunisian president, who assumed full powers last year after dissolving parliament.
“Tunisians are starving, public finances are collapsing, but Saïed doesn’t care… He is only interested in his project for a new Constitution… We will not accept it”, launched Abir Moussi to the crowd.
The main Tunisian political parties have promised to boycott the constitutional referendum that Kaïs Saïed intends to organize on July 25, after appointing a new electoral commission and a new superior council of the judiciary, two institutions that the opposition considers to be under the control of the head of the state.
The jurist Sadok Belaïd, charged by the president with drafting the new Constitution, declared for his part on Saturday that he would submit his project on Monday, as planned, and assured that it would be a democratic Constitution.
(Report Tarek Amara, French version Tangi Salaün)
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