by Tarek Amara and Angus McDowall
TUNIS (Reuters) – Tunisians are called on Monday to vote in a referendum on a draft new constitution that would strengthen the powers of President Kais Saied.
The vote takes place a year after Kais Saied froze the work of parliament, granting himself almost all the powers and governing by decree ever since.
Tunisia’s divided opposition parties have called his move a coup that risks plunging Tunisia back into the pre-revolution autocratic era, and driving the final nail in the coffin of the ‘Arab Spring’ uprisings. of 2011.
Analysts expect a “yes” vote with low turnout.
While almost all the major political parties and civil society organizations denounced a unilateral approach to the rewriting of the constitution and the legitimacy of the referendum, they nevertheless failed to form a united front.
The disunity was visible during the demonstrations against Kaïs Saïed that took place in recent days. The Islamist party Ennahda, the largest party in parliament, was present at a demonstration on Saturday. Civil society organizations and smaller parties staged a protest on Friday. A party supporting the pre-revolution regime held its own demonstration over the two days.
Of the three parliamentary elections and the two presidential elections since the revolution, the lowest participation rate, of 41%, was recorded in 2019 for the chamber that Kaïs Saïed dissolved.
A turnout on Monday well below that rate would further call into question the legitimacy of Kais Saied’s new constitution and his plan to overhaul Tunisian politics.
(Report Tarek Amara, written by Angus McDowall, French version Charlotte Lavin)
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