Tunisian president announces constitutional referendum in 2022
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Loading... - Justin Black
- 14 Dec 2021
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Tunisia will hold a constitutional referendum next July, President Kais Saied announced on Monday, months after he seized broad powers in moves his opponents called a coup.
In a speech on national television on Monday, he said that Parliament of Tunisia would remain suspended until Tunisians vote for a replacement assembly on December 17, 2022.
The referendum vote would take place on July 25, a year after he suspended Parliament and seized near-total executive authority in the country — often touted as the 2010 Arab Spring’s only success story.
“We want to correct the paths of the revolution and history,” he said, after lambasting critics of his intervention.
Saied in September brushed aside most of the 2014 democratic constitution to say he could rule by decree during a period of exceptional measures, and promised a dialogue on further changes.
Critics denounced Saied’s takeover as a coup but the president has consistently defended the move as the only way to end governmental paralysis after years of political squabbling and economic stagnation, compounded by the coronavirus pandemic.
In September, he named Najla Bouden Romdhane, a little-known university engineer who worked with the World Bank, as the country’s first female prime minister, nearly two months after dismissing Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi.
Restoring the ‘sovereignty of the people’
Saied, who has been a sharp critic of the north African country’s 2014 constitution, said that a nationwide public consultation would take place from January 1 until March 20 to gather suggestions for constitutional and other reforms.
Saied said he would appoint a committee of experts to draft a new constitution, to be ready by June ahead of the referendum. Read More…
