President Kais Saied extends Parliament’s freeze for one year

Kais Saied does not let go of his power in Tunisia. The president on Monday extended the suspension of Parliament, which he decided in July by assuming full powers, until new legislative elections were held in December 2022. In a speech to the nation, he also announced the organization from January 1 of a series of popular “consultations” focusing in particular on constitutional and electoral amendments.

“The Parliament will remain suspended until the organization of new elections”, declared the president, which amounts de facto to dissolving the current Chamber which he had frozen by assuming the full powers on July 25. “New legislative elections will take place on December 17, 2022 on the basis of a new electoral law”, he added.

A referendum on July 25

This new law, as well as constitutional amendments, will be drawn up within the framework of popular consultations which 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”.

In the midst of a socio-economic and health crisis and after months of political deadlock, Kais Saied, elected by universal suffrage at the end of 2019, invoked on July 25 an “imminent danger” to dismiss the Prime Minister, suspend the activities of Parliament and resume hand the judiciary. He thus effectively removed from power the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party, the main parliamentary force and pillar of successive government coalitions since the fall in 2011 of the regime of Zine El Abidine ben Ali.

A president accused of “coup”

The president keeps repeating that the current Constitution, which in 2014 established a rather parliamentary hybrid system, is dysfunctional. “If the people can no longer exercise their sovereignty because the text (Constitution) no longer allows it, a new text must be drawn up. Constitutions are not eternal, ”he said, chairing the Council of Ministers shortly before his speech.

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 in the cradle of the Arab Spring. His detractors accused him of having carried out a “coup”. “What coup are they talking about? They also speak of the power of one man and of an attack on freedoms, but who has been arrested or prosecuted for having expressed his opinions or for having demonstrated, ”he defended himself in his speech.

A few days before this speech, the ambassadors of the G7 member countries and of the European Union in Tunisia called for a “rapid” return to democratic institutions in the country.