Tunisian President Warns Against Attempted “Interference” In July 25 Constitutional Referendum

July 12 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Tunisian President Kais Saied has warned against any attempt at “interference” ahead of the constitutional referendum to be held on July 25, amid calls for a boycott by numerous opposition parties.

During a meeting with the president of the High Independent Authority for Elections (ISIE), Faruk Buasker, Saied defended the need for “all parties to be impartial”, according to the Presidency’s Twitter account.

Thus, he stressed that the president has told Buasker that “attempts to interfere with voter registration and the processes of changing polling stations must be addressed.”

“What happened during the electronic consultation should not be repeated during the referendum”, he indicated, referring to the process held between January 15 and March 20 on the Magna Carta draft, which was the target of thousands of computer attacks, according to the Presidency.

“We will not tolerate the actions of those who want the referendum to fail,” said the president, as reported by the Tunisian state news agency, TAP.

Saied himself defended the draft Constitution last week 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’.