In Tunisia, the new Constitution adopted by a very large majority

President Kaïs Saïed emerges victorious from the referendum on the new Constitution. The new fundamental law was adopted by an overwhelming majority of 94.6%, according to preliminary official results announced late, Tuesday July 26, by the president of the electoral authority Isie, Farouk Bouasker, at the end of long operations of counting. This Constitution grants broad prerogatives to the president, jeopardizing the young Tunisian democracy. But the participation rate, less than 30%, undermines the legitimacy of the process, according to its opponents.

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This participation announced yesterday at 27.54% was revised upwards Tuesday evening by Isie. According to the latter, these are “2.756 million voters” who took part in the ballot and not “2.46 million”, as announced the day before, i.e. a participation of 30.5% of registered participants. A new calculation rejected by the coalition of opponents Front du salut national (FSN) which accuses the electoral authority of having “falsified” the results.

The FSN, which denounced a text “tailor-made” for Mr. Saïed, had called for a boycott of the ballot. By not going to the polls, “75% of Tunisians refused to give their approval to the putschist project launched a year ago by Kaïs Saïed”, said in a statement the FSN, which includes the Islamist-inspired movement Ennahda, Mr. Saïed’s pet peeve.

Tunisia has been very polarized since Mr. Saïed, democratically elected in 2019, seized all power on July 25, 2021, on the pretext that the country had become ungovernable.

“Tunisia has entered a new phase”

In the first foreign position on this disputed referendum, the United States warned of the risk that the Constitution would not sufficiently guarantee the rights and freedoms of Tunisians. “The new Constitution includes weakened checks and balances, which could compromise the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms”worried Ned Price, spokesman for the US State Department.

Saïd Benarbia, of the NGO International Commission of Jurists, expressed doubts “on the legitimacy” of the vote with such a low turnout.

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As soon as the estimates of the independent polling institute Sigma Conseil were published on Monday evening, hundreds of supporters of the president descended to celebrate “his victory” on Bourguiba Avenue, in the center of Tunis.

Around 1 a.m., Kaïs Saïed appeared in front of the jubilant crowd. “Tunisia has entered a new phase”he said, assuring that the Constitution would make it possible to pass “from a situation of despair to a situation of hope”.

Voters were mostly “the most aggrieved middle classes, adults who feel cheated economically, politically and socially”analyzed for Agence France-Presse the director of Sigma Conseil, Hassen Zargouni.

Absence of checks and balances

The new Constitution grants broad prerogatives to the head of state, breaking with the parliamentary system in place since 2014. The president, who cannot be dismissed, appoints the head of government and the ministers and can dismiss them as he sees fit.

He may submit to Parliament legislative texts which have “priority”. A second chamber will represent the regions, as a counterweight to the current Assembly of Representatives (deputies).

Sadok Belaïd, the jurist appointed by Mr. Saïed to draw up a draft Constitution, disavowed the final text, believing that it could “opening the way to a dictatorial regime”. Human rights defenders and the opposition denounce, for their part, the absence of checks and balances in this text.

Kaïs Saïed, 64, considers this overhaul as an extension of the “course correction” initiated on July 25, 2021 when, citing political and economic blockages, he dismissed his Prime Minister and froze Parliament before dissolving it in March.

If spaces of freedom remain guaranteed, the question of a return to a dictatorship like that of Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, who was ousted in 2011 during a popular revolt, could arise. “after Kaïs Saïed”according to Mr. Cherif.

For many experts, Mr. Saïed’s political future will depend on his ability to revive an economy in a catastrophic situation with very high unemployment, plummeting purchasing power and an increasing number of poor people. Tunisia is affected by an economic crisis aggravated by Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine on which it depends for its wheat imports.

The World with AFP

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