TUNIS —
Tunisians were voting Monday on a new constitution promoted by President Kais
Saied, which has been criticized for giving his office nearly unchecked powers
and threatening to install an autocracy in the birthplace of the Arab Spring.
اضافة اعلان
The referendum
comes a year to the day after Saied sacked the government and froze parliament
in a power grab that his rivals condemned as a coup.
His moves were,
however, welcomed by many Tunisians fed up with a grinding economic crisis,
political turmoil and a system they felt had brought little improvement to
their lives in the decade since the 2011 overthrow of dictator Zine El Abidine
Ben Ali.
Most think Monday’s
vote will pass, but turnout will gauge Saied’s popularity after a year of
increasingly tight one-man rule that has seen scant progress on tackling the
North African country’s economic woes.
Early on Monday, a
handful of voters queued as they waited for a polling station to open in Tunis,
guarded by a pair of soldiers and four police officers.
After casting their
ballots, they emerged with purple ink on one finger to prevent fraud.
Electoral board
chief Farouk Bouaskar said turnout had reached 13.6 percent by 3:30pm, and that
voting had so far taken place without incident.
Speaking
mid-morning,
Saied told journalists the country faced a “historic choice” and a
free vote.
“Together we are
founding a new republic based on genuine freedom, justice, and national dignity,”
he said.
Imed Hezzi, a
57-year-old waiter, said he had “lots of hope” Saied would improve the country.
“Tunisia will
prosper from today onwards,” he told AFP after voting. “The start of the new
Tunisia is today.”
‘None of the safeguards’
Some 9.3 million out of Tunisia’s 12 million people are eligible to vote.
No minimum
participation has been set for the constitution to pass, nor any provision for
a “no” result, and Saied’s critics have warned Tunisia risks sliding back
towards dictatorship.
The new text would
place the head of state in command of the army, allow him to appoint a
government without parliamentary approval and make him virtually impossible to
remove from office.
The president could
also present draft laws to parliament, which would be obliged to give them
priority.
The new charter “gives the president almost all
powers and dismantles any check on his rule and any institution that might
exert any kind of control over him,” declared Said Benarbia, regional director
of the International Commission of Jurists.
“None of the
safeguards that could protect Tunisians from Ben Ali-type violations are there
any more.”
Saied’s charter
would replace a 2014 constitution that was a hard-won compromise between
Islamist-leaning and secular forces after three years of political turmoil.
His supporters
blame the resulting parliamentary-presidential system and the dominant
Islamist-influenced Ennahdha party for years of political crises and
corruption.
Saied’s draft
constitution was published this month with little reference even to an earlier
draft produced by a committee he appointed himself.
Sadeq Belaid, a
mentor of Saied who led the process, warned the president’s first draft was far
removed from that of the committee and risked creating a “dictatorial system”.
A slightly amended
version did little to address such concerns.
Opposition parties
and civil society groups have called for a boycott, while the powerful UGTT
trade union has declined to take a position.
Revolutionary ‘correction’
Benarbia said the text
“doesn’t even envisage the possibility of a no vote”.
Saied, a 64-year-old law professor, won the 2019
presidential election in a landslide, building on his image as incorruptible
and distanced from the political elite.
He has appeared increasingly isolated in recent
months, mostly limiting his public comments to official videos from his office
— often diatribes against domestic foes he brands as “snakes”, “germs”, and
“traitors”.
He has vowed to protect Tunisians’ liberties and
describes his political project as a “correction” and a return to the path of
the revolution.
Mongia Aounallah, a 62-year-old retiree, said she
hoped the referendum would lead to “a better life for our children’s children”.
“The schools are a catastrophe,” she said. “The
situation is catastrophic. Everything is catastrophic.”
Labourer Ridha Nefzi agreed.
“I came to vote to change the situation of the
country,” the 43-year-old said.
“The country’s run into a brick wall. But today we
turn a new page.”
Saied’s modesty popularity will be tested by soaring
inflation, youth unemployment of 40 percent, and a tough loan deal with the
International Monetary Fund.
Voting is set to end at 10pm (9pm GMT) and initial
results are expected on Tuesday evening.
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