Shaaban Bilal (Tunisia, Cairo)
Amid strict security measures, thousands of polling stations in Tunisia are preparing today, Monday, to receive voters to cast their votes in the referendum on the new draft constitution, which will be decisive in determining the country’s political future, amid great popular support for the path of the new republic launched by President Kais Saied, and the attempts of the “Brotherhood” » To influence the referendum by hacking election databases, distributing funds, and conducting mobilizations to abstain from voting.
The country entered a period of electoral silence yesterday, during which it is forbidden during this day for official bodies and opponents or supporters of the constitution to conduct electoral campaigns.
And this process is taking place, amid tight security monitoring, as thousands of security and army personnel will secure voting and counting offices throughout the country. Yesterday, the electoral commissions in Tunisia distributed the ballot boxes and the necessary materials to the polling stations.
Meanwhile, voting continued for the second day in a row outside the country, in 47 countries around the world, amid expectations of an increase in participation rates, which did not exceed 3% on the first day of polling.
Tunisian political experts and analysts confirmed to Al-Ittihad that there are multiple attempts by the Brotherhood and external parties to influence the referendum process on the new constitution through hacking election databases and distributing funds to abstain from voting, stressing that the referendum process will succeed despite these miserable attempts.
Tunisian political analyst Munther Thabet considered that President Kais Saied did not provide sufficient data to clarify what happened in the hacking of election databases, but there is information confirming the existence of attempts to hack several election-related data, explaining that these attempts were made through platforms from abroad.
He added to Al-Ittihad that there are attempts to disrupt the referendum and confuse the democratic process from its technical side, the integrity of the information, the data bank and the database, but the Tunisian authorities are alert to these assumptions.
Thabet stressed that these attempts will not hinder the referendum, because the majority of the Tunisian street supports the project of President Kais Saied, and there is a very broad popular support for this project and the person of President Kais Saied, given the opposition’s right to criticism, counter-propaganda and demonstration.
In turn, Tunisian political analyst Nizar Al-Jedidi confirmed that the Brotherhood’s attempts to disrupt the referendum did not end but started now, pointing to monitoring of the distribution of funds and mobilization against the referendum, in addition to the operations of jamming via satellite in order not to be known to everyone.
Al-Jalidi explained to Al-Ittihad that President Qais Saeed revealed the existence of an “electronic war” that was being waged on the official website of the elections and the addresses of the voting offices, adding that the president knew that the Brotherhood distributed funds in the villages and repeatedly tried not to succeed in this path, which is written towards The third republic.
Tunisian political analyst Al-Hadi Hamdoun agreed on the existence of attempts to influence the referendum, the latest of which was about 1,700 hacking of the election authority’s website, which caused a large number of polling places to be changed, for example what happened with the leader of the Free Constitution Party, Abeer Moussa, where her electoral file was placed in an embassies abroad.
Hamdoun explained to Al-Ittihad that this forced the electoral authority to open the door to verify registration during the referendum campaigns, expecting that the constitution would pass, but there are popular campaigns to raise the turnout rate in the face of what Tunisia has witnessed for years of reluctance from politics due to the lack of confidence in politicians and parties, which is What did not happen with Qais Saeed, who does not have a party and changed the concepts and rules of the political game.
Meanwhile, political analyst and researcher in Arab affairs, Mohamed Hemida, explained that since the president announced the road map on July 25, he has faced many internal and external pressures and confusion, as the Brotherhood and its allies seek to thwart the course taken by the president.
He added to Al-Ittihad, “No one has the ability to confirm this information, but it came from the president of the republic, and therefore it represents a major crisis, not at the level of the group, but because it is done in the way the president spoke about, this means the cooperation of external parties with the Brotherhood and their support for them, which is the mechanism.” Which the group always resorts to, as happened in many countries.”
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