TUNIS — More than 2,000 Tunisians rallied on Sunday,
the country's independence day, against President
Kais Saied and a project he
launched to gauge public opinion on proposed constitutional reforms.
اضافة اعلان
Protesters in the capital shouted "the people want to
overthrow the president" and "no to consultations".
The demonstration was organized by the Islamist-inspired
Ennahdha party and a movement named "Citizens Against the Coup" — in
reference to a power grab by Saied last year.
Many of the demonstrators were people who had voted for
Saied, among them blogger and rights activist Mounira Bouazizi.
"I thought that he believed in democracy and the gains
of the revolution, but he did the complete opposite," she told AFP.
Mohammed, a retiree, echoed her, saying: "We cannot
call this a democratic process. Today, the people are divided between pro- and
anti-Kais Saied. This harms freedoms and democracy."
Sunday's rally was the latest in a series of demonstrations
in the
North African country since Saied seized a host of powers after
dismissing the government and freezing parliament on July 25.
Critics have dubbed the move a "coup" and rights
groups have warned that the country — seen as the only democracy to emerge from
the Arab Spring protests — is sliding towards autocracy.
Demonstrators marched on parliament in the Bardo
neighborhood of
Tunis, many waving national flags, but a large police
deployment blocked their path.
"We will not accept the results of the consultation,
this farce against the people," Samira Chaouachi, the vice president in
the frozen parliament, told the crowd.
'Save the country'
Sunday marked the final day of an online poll launched by
Saied in January in a process to help rewrite the country's constitution, with
the results set to be presented to a committee of experts.
So far only 508,000 people, about seven percent of the seven
million eligible voters, have taken part, according to official statistics.
A referendum on the constitutional reforms, which Saied
hopes will bolster his authority, is scheduled for July, exactly a year after
his power grab, with parliamentary elections scheduled for December.
"Our condolences for the constitution, President
Saied," demonstrators chanted Sunday, mocking the low turnout.
Saied had blamed the low turnout on "technical
obstacles" and "attempts by the old system to abort this
experiment" — in an apparent reference to his arch rivals Ennahdha.
"We want early presidential and legislative
elections," said Ennahdha member Yamina Zoghlami.
"We are in the midst of a political crisis and we must
have a political dialogue to save the country," she added, warning of a
"Lebanese scenario" in the North African country.
Tunisia, like
Lebanon, has been in the throes of an economic
downturn and is seeking a bailout from the International Monetary Fund, amid
rising prices and inflation.
Demonstrators also called for the release of the former head
of the bar association,
Abderrazek Kilani, arrested in early March on the orders
of a military court on charges of "disturbing public order with the intent
to obstruct the application of the law".
Kilani is a member of the defense committee for former
justice minister and senior Ennahdha figure Noureddine Bhiri, who has been
under house arrest since December.
Earlier in March, 13 international rights groups called on
Tunisia to scrap a draft law that would restrict freedoms gained by civil
society during the 2011 revolution.
The leaked draft law could permit authorities to dissolve
civil society groups at will without going through the courts, the rights
groups said.
In a speech in February, Saied had accused civil society
groups of serving foreign interests and trying to meddle in Tunisian politics,
saying he would move to ban all foreign funding for such groups.
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