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Tunisia: Ghannouchi calls on MPs to celebrate eighth anniversary of Constitution virtually

January 26, 2022 at 6:31 pm

Tunisia’s parliament speaker and the leader of Ennahda Rached Ghannouchi attends the funeral ceremony of Ridha Bouziane who died during the protest on Jan. 14th in Siliana city, Tunisia on January 20, 2022 [Yassine Gaidi – Anadolu Agency]

The Speaker of the Tunisian Parliament, Rached Ghannouchi, called on Members of Parliament to commemorate the eighth anniversary of approving the Tunisian Republic’s Constitution (27 January, 2014), through a virtual session, on Thursday at 11 am.

This is according to the member of the Tunisian Parliament’s bureau and assistant of the Speaker of Parliament in charge of information, Maher Madhioub, in a statement to The Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper on Tuesday.

Ghannouchi’s call to celebrate the anniversary of the 2014 constitution comes six months after Tunisian President, Kais Saied’s decision to suspend the parliament, freezing its powers and lifting immunity of its MPs on 25 July. Then, on 22 September, he suspended the grants of the members of parliament, withdrew their legislative and oversight powers and took over the legislative function by presidential decrees.

Parliament has witnessed repeated calls to hold a plenary session by MPs from the ruling coalition, in protest against the forced suspension of its work by the State’s President and as an expression of their non-recognition of the decision of suspending the parliament. However, this option has not been supported by the majority of the opposition blocs.

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For his part, Madhioub indicated that “the symbolism of this celebration lies in the fact that the Constitution is the solution and not the opposite, through returning to the constitutional path and elected institutions, ending the exceptional measures, and to launch a comprehensive socio-economic policy to stand together in the face of the challenges that threaten the existence and sustainability of the Tunisian state.”

Since its suspension, the Tunisian Parliament has witnessed the closure of official websites of Members of Parliament, along with their social media accounts to prevent any possibility of holding remote public sessions on the official channels of the Parliament.

Security units continue closing the Tunisian Parliament in an implementation to President Saied’s decision to ban the entry of any Member of Parliament since 25 July.