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The Islamist party Ennahda calls for a boycott in the constitutional referendum in Tunisia

The Islamist party Ennahda calls for a boycott in the constitutional referendum in Tunisia

July 8. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Tunisian Islamist party Ennahda has called for a boycott of the constitutional referendum called on July 25 and has insisted that it is a project promoted by the president of Tunisia, Kais Saied, without a dialogue process, after assuming all the powers in July 2021 by dissolving the Government and suspending Parliament.

Ennahda’s spokesman, Imed Jemiri, has stated that the referendum has no legal or constitutional basis and has argued that it goes against the interests of the Tunisian population, as reported by the Tunisian state news agency, TAP.

“This draft Constitution will be adopted regardless of the result of the vote, since the decree does not contemplate any scenario for a possible vote against the text,” he said, before charging Saied again for his measures since July 2021.

The party, which had the majority in Parliament -later dissolved by Saied-, has been very critical of the president and has denounced “a coup d’état” and an autocratic drift by the president, who has nevertheless rejected these critics.

Saied himself defended the draft Constitution on Monday and stressed that it does not pose a risk to the rights and freedoms of the population, for which he encouraged citizens to vote ‘yes’.


Likewise, he 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”.

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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