On Monday, Tunisian President Kais Saied criticized those calling for a boycott of the referendum on the new draft constitution.
After casting his vote in the referendum, he said that “those who called for the boycott are free in their positions, but they fear the popular will.”
Saeed added that “the new constitution will cut off the remnants of the period of party rule, and it has many positive points, including preventing party tourism by transferring the winning politicians from one party to another.”
On Monday, Tunisians began voting in a referendum on a new draft constitution that grants broad powers to President Kais Saied and may return the country to a dictatorship similar to the one that existed before 2011, according to AFP.
Voting began in more than 11,000 polling stations, according to the electoral authority in charge of organizing the referendum, which, according to Saeed, would put an end to the political crisis resulting from his control of all authorities in the country a year ago.
According to the Election Commission, 9,296,064 voters registered voluntarily or automatically to participate in the referendum, which is rejected by most political parties and criticized by human rights defenders. The 356,291 expatriates began casting ballots on Saturday and have until Monday to vote.
The participation rate is the most prominent bet in this referendum, which does not require a minimum level of participation. The new constitution is expected to gain popular acceptance, while the opposition, in large part, called for a boycott of the referendum.
The new draft constitution raises concerns among experts by establishing a presidential system and breaking with the parliamentary system introduced by the post-revolution 2011 constitution in Tunisia, which was considered a successful example in the region of what it called the “Arab Spring”.
