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A new Tunisian constitution<\/a> that the opposition warns may dismantle the country\u2019s democracy by greatly expanding presidential powers is set to take effect after a referendum on Monday that appeared to pass easily but with low turnout.<\/p>\n President Kais Saied ousted the parliament last year and moved to rule by decree, saying the country needed saving from years of paralysis as he rewrote the democratic constitution introduced after Tunisia\u2019s 2011 \u2018Arab spring\u2019 revolution.<\/p>\n Opposition parties boycotted the referendum, accusing Saied of a coup and saying the new constitution he published less than a month ago augurs a slide back towards autocracy.<\/p>\n The new constitution gives the president power over both the government and judiciary while removing checks on his authority and weakening the parliament.<\/p>\n Tunisia meanwhile faces a looming economic crisis and is seeking an International Monetary Fund (IMF) rescue package \u2014 issues that have preoccupied ordinary people far more over the past year than the political crisis.<\/p>\n There was no minimum level of participation for the measure to pass and the electoral commission put preliminary turnout at only 27.5%.<\/p>\n Soon after an exit poll was published by Sigma Conseil indicating a \u2018yes\u2019 vote of 92.3%, hundreds of Saied supporters flocked to the central Habib Bourguiba Avenue to celebrate.<\/p>\n \u201cSovereignty is for the people\u201d, \u201cThe people want to purify the country\u201d they chanted, dismissing concerns over a return to autocracy.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not afraid of anything. Only the corrupt and the officials who looted the state will be afraid,\u201d said Noura bin Ayad, a 46-year-old woman carrying a Tunisian flag.<\/p>\n Saied\u2019s initial moves against the parliament last year appeared hugely popular with Tunisians, as thousands flooded the streets to support him, venting fury at the political parties they blamed for years of misgovernance and decline.<\/p>\n However, as Tunisia\u2019s economy worsened over the past year with little intervention by Saied, his support appeared to wane.<\/p>\n An opposition coalition including the Islamist Ennahda, the biggest party in the dissolved parliament, said Saied had \u201cmiserably failed to secure popular backing for his coup\u201d and urged him to resign.<\/p>\n The low turnout rate is not easily comparable to previous elections because Tunisia now automatically registers voters. The previous lowest participation rate was 41% in 2019 for the parliament that Saied has dissolved.<\/p>\n The president\u2019s opponents have also questioned the integrity of a vote conducted by an electoral commission whose board Saied replaced this year, and with fewer independent observers than for previous Tunisian elections.<\/p>\n Casting his own vote on Monday, Saied hailed the referendum as the foundation of a new republic.<\/p>\n Western democracies that looked to Tunisia as the only success story of the Arab Spring have yet to comment on the proposed new constitution, although they have urged Tunis over the past year to return to the democratic path.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m frustrated by all of them. I\u2019d rather enjoy this hot day than go and vote,\u201d said Samia, a woman sitting with her husband and teenage son on the beach at La Marsa near Tunis, speaking about Tunisian politicians.<\/p>\n Standing outside a cafe in the capital, Samir Slimane said he was not interested in voting.<\/p>\n \u201cI have no hope of change. Kais Saied will not change anything. He only seeks to have all the powers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Economic decline since 2011 has left many Tunisians angry at the parties that have governed since the revolution and disillusioned with the political system they ran.<\/p>\n To address economic privations, the government hopes to secure a $4 billion loan from the IMF, but faces stiff union opposition to the required reforms, including cuts to fuel and food subsidies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n[ad_2]\n [ad_1] A new Tunisian constitution that the opposition warns may dismantle the country\u2019s democracy by greatly expanding presidential powers is set to take effect after a referendum on Monday that appeared to pass easily but with low turnout. President Kais Saied ousted the parliament last year and moved to rule by decree, saying the country …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4938"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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