TUNIS —
Tunisian police clashed with protesters against
President Kais Saied on
Saturday as around 100 people demonstrated against a planned July referendum, a
year after his power grab opponents describe as a coup.
اضافة اعلان
The police blocked the protesters as they
attempted to reach the headquarters of the electoral board whose chief Saied
had replaced last month in a further move to extend his control of state
institutions.
Some at the protest in the Tunisian capital,
organized by five small political parties, held up placards reading “the
president’s commission = fraud commission”.
Saied on July 25 sacked the government and suspended
parliament, which he later dissolved in moves that sparked fears for the only
democracy to have emerged from the
Arab Spring uprisings. He has laid out plans
for a referendum next month on a replacement for a 2014 constitution that had
enshrined a mixed parliamentary-presidential system often plagued by deadlock
and nepotism.
On April 22, Saied gave himself powers to
appoint three of the seven members of the ISIE electoral commission, including
the president. Then last month he appointed former ISIE member Farouk Bouasker
to replace Nabil Baffoun, a critic of his July power grab.
Saied’s opponents accuse him of moving towards
autocracy and putting in place a compliant electoral body ahead of the July
referendum and parliamentary elections in December.
Many
Tunisians however support his moves against a system
they say has done little for their quality of life in the decade since a 2011
revolt that toppled dictator Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali.
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