“Vour opinion, our decision. “The electronic platform which should collect the suggestions of Tunisians concerning the reforms proposed by President Kaïs Saïed, who has assumed full powers since the end of July, was officially launched on Saturday 1is January. The stakes are high for the leader, who wants to break with the image of an isolated man, put the country back on track in terms of ideas and using his living forces. It remains to be seen whether this will be enough to appease an always explosive political climate.
In any case, according to the Ministry of Technology, a “trial and awareness operation” has started in youth centers in 24 regions of the country, and “the platform will be open to everyone from January 15 and until ‘to March 20’. But the initiative is not unanimous, both democratically and technically. Knowing that only 45% of Tunisian households have an Internet connection, the authorities want to be reassuring, affirming that the others will be able to go to various neighborhood committees. “Your present and your future are launched”, indicates on its home page the electronic portal of the national consultation www.e-istichara.tn.
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How it works ?
To address their comments, Internet users are asked to register with their identity card by entering the portal, requesting a secret code which will be sent to them by text / sms.
The authorities assure that the platform was designed to allow “Tunisians, at home and abroad, to express their views on the most important issues”, adding “because your opinion is important”.
The site lists political and electoral, economic and financial issues, social issues, development and digital transition, health and quality of life, educational and cultural affairs. At the end of its preamble, the platform reads: “national consultation… your opinion, our decision”.
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Explosive background
Since July 25, 2021, arguing political and socio-economic blockages, President Saïed has assumed full powers in the country which was the cradle of the Arab Spring in 2011. He dismissed the Prime Minister and suspended the Parliament, dominated by the Islamist-inspired party Ennahdha, his pet peeve. Since then, he has governed by decree despite protests from his opponents and national organizations, including the powerful UGTT trade union center.
On December 13, the Head of State unveiled a roadmap intended to get out of the political crisis with a legislative election scheduled for December 2022, following revision of the electoral law, and a referendum in July 2022 to amend the Constitution, that he wants more “presidential”, at the expense of Parliament. Previously, an electronic “popular consultation” should be organized to generate ideas that should serve as a basis for constitutional amendments. A singular process which illustrates, according to his detractors, the “populist” methods of the president, elected in 2019 with nearly 73% of the vote, and which continues to enjoy solid popularity.
“The country is swimming in political uncertainty, even following the announcement by Mr. Saïed of his roadmap which does not seem to reassure the partners, neither inside nor outside”, told AFP the political scientist Hamza Meddeb. “We have never tried this kind of referendums in Tunisia and we do not know how the president intends to organize these consultations. There are a lot of gray spots, ”he said. These consultations will take place “in the midst of socio-economic malaise with questions concerning freedoms”, he analyzed, deploring “a repression with a covered face”.
On Friday, the vice-president of Ennahdha Noureddine Bhiri, close to Rached Ghannouchi, at the head of the party of Islamist inspiration and bête noire of the head of state, was arrested. No information was given on the reasons for this arrest. Ennahdha confirmed the arrest of Mr. Bhiri, also former Minister of Justice, denouncing, in a press release, “a kidnapping and a dangerous precedent which marks the entry of the country into the tunnel of the dictatorship”. The same day, in a statement, the Interior Ministry announced that it had ordered house arrest once morest two people, without naming names. Ennahdha has been at the heart of a standoff with President Kaïs Saïed since his coup on July 25 and his decision to suspend the Parliament that this party had controlled for ten years. Several politicians and opponents denounced a “coup”, warning once morest a desire by President Saïed to settle scores with those they designate in his speeches by the term “enemies”, without ever citing them by name. . On December 22, former President Moncef Marzouki, fierce critic of the Tunisian president living in France, was sentenced in absentia to four years in prison for having “undermined state security abroad” following having criticized publicly the Tunisian power from Paris.
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