The opposition points to a “falsification and manipulation of the figures” in the Tunisian constitutional referendum

July 26 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Oppositionist Ahmed Néjib Chebbi, from the National Salvation Front coalition, made up of various Tunisian political parties and civil organizations, stressed on Tuesday that the vote on the new Constitution in Tunisia is a “falsification and manipulation of figures” .

“By boycotting the referendum, the people refused to participate in the masquerade orchestrated by (President) Kais Saied, who has confiscated power for a year, and who has sought, in vain, legality for a despotic constitution enshrining the absolute personal power,” he said, adding that “the impartiality and integrity of the electoral body” is in doubt, as Kapitalis has collected.

On the other hand, the Ministry of the Interior has confirmed in a statement the retention of people who “deliberately disturbed the referendum process, and submitted the infractions and electoral violations to the High Independent Authority for Elections”, according to the news agency TAP.

The first estimates of the vote, according to polls at the exit of the electoral colleges – awaiting preliminary results this Tuesday – point to a ‘Yes’ victory of more than 92 percent in the Tunisian constitutional referendum.

On the contrary, the votes against the proposal of the Tunisian president, Kais Saied, would reach 7.7 percent, according to the director of the Sigma Konsai Foundation demographic company, Hassan al Zarkuni, points out the Mosaique FM station.

The Tunisian president denounced that “desperation has been sown in the people so that they move away from public affairs.” “These conspiracies have been going on since January 2011,” he noted, referring to the popular revolution that toppled Zine el Abidine ben Ali during the “Arab Spring.”

“We are facing a historic election and the people must not miss this date with history and not give in to those who set fire to the forests and pay citizens not to vote* They are not from this town, they are not from this country, they have betrayed it and sold it to foreigners,” he added, after the vote.

The draft of the Magna Carta brings together most of the powers around the Presidency and reduces the power of Parliament, suspended in July 2021 –and later dissolved–, the date on which Saied dissolved the Government and arrogated all the competencies.

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’.

The Tunisian president defended the draft Constitution 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’, in the face of internal and international criticism for the ‘hyper-presidential’ model that drive the document.