The Tunisian president stresses that the draft “has the spirit of the revolution” in the framework of the ‘Arab Spring’
July 5. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of Tunisia, Kais Saied, has defended the draft Constitution that will be submitted to a referendum on July 25 and has stressed that it does not pose a risk to the rights and freedoms of the population, for which he has encouraged citizens to vote ‘Yes’.
Saied stated in a letter published on the official account of the Tunisian Presidency on the social network Facebook that “it was necessary to seriously think about the development of a new Constitution” and added that “the project has been developed based on what the Tunisian people have expressed since the outbreak of the revolution (in 2018 and 2019)”.
Thus, it has defended its measures to “correct the political direction” of the country in May 2021, when all powers were arrogated after dissolving the Government and suspending Parliament -later dissolved- and has highlighted that the Magna Carta project ” contains the spirit of the revolution”.
“There is no harm to rights and freedoms”, Saied stressed, denouncing “corruption” and “lack of accountability” in the country, which has caused “crisis and misery”, without the Constitution and the laws passed since 2014 have put a stop to the crisis.
In this sense, he has denounced that “those who continue to defame and affirm that the draft of the Constitution is a previous step to tyranny did not analyze all the clauses”, despite the fact that the president of the constitutional commission is among the critics of the draft.
The organization’s president, Sadok Belaid, denounced on Sunday that the text published in the official newspaper and that will be submitted to a referendum is not the one that was presented to Saied and warned that the powers given to the president “could open the way to a regime dictatorial”.
“This project that we present has the spirit of the revolution and the correction of the path”, said Saied. “Say ‘yes’ to save the state and achieve the goals of the revolution to put an end to misery, terrorism, injustice and pain,” the Tunisian president stressed.
The document, published last week, has been prepared by a committee made up of people appointed by Saied himself and reflects that the president has total immunity in the exercise of his functions and appoints the prime minister and the ministers proposed by the head of Government, to which it can delegate its powers in the event of a temporary vacancy in the exercise of power.
On the other hand, the president has the authority to adopt “exceptional measures” in the event of “imminent danger” for the State, while he also has authority over the justice apparatus and the Army, amid complaints about Saied’s will to impose an autocratic model.
The Constitution thus concentrates powers in the figure of the president, leaving aside the National Assembly, which will be made up of two chambers, while a Council of Regions will be created with the declared objective of improving the representation of the population.
If approved in a referendum, the document will replace the Magna Carta approved in 2014 following the overthrow in 2011 of the then president, Zine el Abidine ben Ali, within the framework of a massive wave of popular protests in what is known as ‘Spring Arab’.
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