More than 9.2 million Tunisians are called to vote on Monday in the first referendum in Tunisia’s history, in a referendum on a new constitution to replace the 2014 one, resulting from a democratic transition that is now on an uncertain course. The more than 11,000 polling stations will remain open from 6 am (2 pm GMT) to 10 pm (6 pm GMT) during a non-working day throughout the country and which coincides with the vacation period. The 348,876 voters residing abroad have been able to vote at Tunisian embassies and consulates since Saturday.
National and international observers will guarantee the legality of the referendum: official delegations from the African Union, the Arab League and the Carter organization will be present, Farouk Bouasker, president of the Independent Higher Instance for Elections (Isie), in charge of monitoring the vote, told the report. In April, the president of Tunisia, Kais Saied, changed the composition of the Isie, a previously independent body, whose members are now directly and indirectly elected by him. In turn, the Tunisian association Mourakiboun will mobilize 3,200 observers for 1,000 polling stations, while the authorities announced that 84,000 agents will supervise the electoral colleges.
The constitutional referendum is part of the script of President Saied, who on July 25, 2021 declared a state of emergency to correct, as he then declared, the “revolutionary course” that began in 2011 with the fall of the dictatorship of Zine el Abidine Ben Ali. The episode was considered the beginning of the Arab Spring, a movement that spread and led to the removal of two more rulers besides Ben Ali – the Egyptian Hosni Mubarak and the Libyan Muammar Gaddafi – and there were waves of protests in several other countries in the region.
Jurists consider that new text opens space for authoritarianism
The new Constitution, if approved, will replace the current one from 2014 and form a political system that will move from parliamentary, like the current one, to “ultra-presidential”, as it gives greater executive powers to the head of state and weakens the role of Parliament. Jurists warned about the lack of judicial independence and the separation of powers that guarantee the rule of law in the new text that, in their assessment, “codifies authoritarianism”.
Citizens, who saw the final draft on June 30 – later modified on July 8 with minor changes – will decide whether to approve or reject the new text. The counting of votes will take place from Tuesday, the 26th, to Thursday, the 28th, when the preliminary results will be known; then, a pleadings period opens between July 30 and August 27, with the publication of final results on August 28.
The text contemplates in the transitional provisions that the decree of September 2021, by which the president governs with exceptional measures, will be maintained until the formation of a new parliament, called the Assembly of People’s Representatives. Saied announced legislative elections for December 17, the date in remembrance of the self-immolation, in 2010, of the young street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi in the city of Sidi Bouzid, considered the spark of the protests that led to the revolution.
This July 25 marks one year since Saied dismissed the prime minister and suspended parliament – later dissolved – to “save” the nation, in addition to being the 65th anniversary of the proclamation of the Republic of Tunisia by Habib Bourguiba. The Tunisian president, who insists on the creation of a “New Republic”, based the current political roadmap on a digital poll carried out in January in which just over 5% of registered voters participated. Most political parties called for a boycott of the historic referendum, which does not include a minimum threshold for participation for the final approval of the constitutional project.
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