Published on : 27/07/2022 – 00:20
According to preliminary official results, 94.6% of Tunisian voters who went to the polls voted “yes” to the adoption of the new Constitution proposed by President Kaïs Saïed. A half-hearted victory, due to a very strong abstention.
President Kaïs Saïed achieved a success on Tuesday July 26 with the adoption by a large majority of a new Constitution which grants it vast prerogatives at the risk of jeopardizing the young tunisian democracybut the low turnout undermines the legitimacy of the process, according to its opponents.
The new fundamental law was adopted by an overwhelming majority of 94.6%, according to preliminary official results announced late Tuesday by the president of the electoral authority, Farouk Bouasker, following lengthy counting operations. The participation rate, considered to be very low, increased slightly compared to to the provisional figures announced the day before“to 2.756 million voters” or 30.5% of registered voters, once morest 2.46 million voters and a participation of 27.54% announced the day before.
The coalition of opponents Front du salut national (FSN), which had called for a boycott of the ballot denouncing a text “tailor-made” for Mr. Saïed, accused Isie of having “falsified” by amplifying the figures on attendance at the ballot. For the FSN, which includes the Islamist-inspired movement Ennahdha, Mr. Saied’s pet peeve, by not going to the polls, “75% of Tunisians refused to give their approval to the putschist project launched a year ago. by Kais Saied.
A serious economic crisis
Tunisia, facing an economic crisis aggravated by the Covid and the war in Ukraine on which it depends for its wheat imports, has been very polarized since Mr. Saïed, democratically elected in 2019, seized all the powers on 25 July 2021, arguing that the country is ungovernable.
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 might compromise the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms,” said Ned Price, spokesman for the US State Department.
Horns and flags
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. GMT, 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 move “from a situation of despair to a situation of hope”.
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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 can 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 lawyer commissioned by Mr. Saïed to draw up a draft Constitution, disavowed the final text, believing that it might “open the way to a dictatorial regime”.
Very limited checks and balances
Human rights defenders and the opposition denounce the absence of checks and balances and safeguards in this text.
Kais Saied, 64, considers this overhaul as an extension of the “correction of course” initiated on July 25, 2021 when, citing political and economic blockages, he dismissed his Prime Minister and froze Parliament before dissolving it in March. 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.
With AFP
