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“Between 92 and 93%” of voters approved the Kais Saied Constitution, based on exit polls,” a Tunisian polling institute announced on Tuesday. The official results of the referendum on the change of the Constitution have not yet been released. been published but everything seems to indicate that the low turnout favored the president.
With information from our special envoy in Tunisia, Magali Lagrange.
The official results had not fallen on the night of Monday, July 25, but that did not prevent dozens and dozens of people from gathering to celebrate with flags and loudspeakers the very probable victory of the “yes” after the referendum on the new Constitution proposed by the President Kais Saied.
The electoral authority announced on Tuesday that only 27.54% of the 9.3 million registered voters voted. According to the Sigma Conseil institute, based on exit polls, the “yes” rate exceeded 90%.
With the referendum, President Saied was risking everything for everything, one year precisely after the coup of July 25, 2021, in which he dissolved the parliament and arrogated the executive and judicial powers.
On Monday the Tunisians were summoned to endorse a project to change the Constitution, which seeks to strengthen presidential powers and reduce the parliamentary system. The opposition called for a boycott of the plebiscite, recalling that in 2011, the civilian population waged a battle to overthrow dictator Ben Ali.
“The new Constitution will allow the introduction of a new dictatorship in which the president will attribute all powers to himself. We want to maintain the 2014 Constitution. In addition, in the last year there have been many arrests and many civilians have been tried in military courts,” the vice president of the Tunisian League for Human Rights, Mesaoud Romdani, explained to RFI in a protest against the referendum. The last friday.
“That they can repair the country and get us out of misery”
The boycott will undoubtedly weigh the balance on Kais Saied’s side, since the referendum does not require a minimum participation and a majority of Tunisians support the president and his promises to clean up Tunisian public life and fight corruption. Saied has also instilled fears that the Islamist Ennahda party will return to power.
Tunisia is going through a serious economic crisis, with a youth unemployment rate of 40%. For many Tunisians, the concerns are more social than political. “These last ten years have been hell. I voted with my children in mind“, says Mrs. Bari, a retired woman. Another elderly lady, Gamra Hassen, voted in favor of the constitutional change and says that she hopes that the leaders will thus be able to “repair the country, bring order and get us out of misery”.
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