Tunisia Parliament votes unanimously to abolish Saied's measures

The Tunisian Parliament voted unanimously to abolish all the exceptional measures announced by President Kais Saied on 25 July.

The bill relating to abolishing the exceptional measures won the votes of 116 deputies out of 217, without objection or the rejection by any Member of Parliament.

On Wednesday, a virtual plenary session was commenced in the Tunisian Parliament, in an unprecedented step since Saied has announced his exceptional measures on 25 July.

The session was chaired by the second Deputy Speaker of the Tunisian Parliament, Tarek Fetiti, who said in a speech during the opening of the parliamentary session, which has been broadcast on “YouTube”, that “121 deputies (out of 217, the total number) are attending the session.”

He indicated that eight members of the “Ennahda” Movement (53 deputies) submitted their resignations from the Parliament.

During the session, Fetiti presented a bill to abolish the exceptional measures imposed by Tunisian President, Kais Saied, on 25 July, which included freezing the powers of Parliament.

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The first chapter of the bill stipulates  “cancelling all presidential orders and decrees issued, starting from 25 July, 2021, in particular, Order No. 80 of the year 2021 dated 29 July, 2021 relating to suspending the powers of the Parliament; Order No. 109 of the year 2021 relating to extending the exceptional measures; Order No. 117 of the year 2021 dated 22 September, 2021 relating to exceptional measures and Decree No. 11 of the year 2022 dated 12 February, 2022, relating to the creation of the Interim Supreme Judicial Council.”

In his speech, during the parliamentary session, the head of the “Ennahda Movement” bloc, Imad Khamiri, called for holding early parliamentary and presidential elections.

Khamiri said that his party calls for ending the exceptional measures adopted since 25 July.

He also called for a comprehensive national dialogue, and to return to the origin of legitimacy, pending early presidential and parliamentary elections.

For his part, Osama Al-Khelaifi, a deputy and head of the “Heart of Tunisia” bloc, said that “today’s session is the session of the steadfastness of legitimacy within the state,” stressing that “our session is not a dispute about legitimacy, rather it is to stop this dispute, since the coup is the founder of legitimacy dispute.”

Al-Khelaifi added that the voting to abolish the exceptional measures would return Tunisia to the democratic course.

On the other hand, Numan Al-Esh, a deputy from the Democratic Current, said that holding this plenary session is an indication of “the failure of the coup that dismantled the state.”

Al-Esh called for the necessity of implementing a national dialogue that includes all; he said: “We uphold a participatory democratic course, and it is necessary to make reviews by all parties.”

Meanwhile, Seifeddine Makhlouf, a deputy from the “Dignity Coalition”, said that the role of the deputies “is to halt the coup against the Constitution and revolution.”

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Makhlouf considered that the date of 25 July “is a symbol of theft of the Constitution, law, revolution, and institutions; it represents a crime as per Article 72 of the Criminal Code.”

The session started after a relative delay due to the Tunisian authorities’ blocking of the “Zoom” application in order to prevent the Parliament from holding a meeting; however, this problem was resolved.

The deputies are also expected to vote on another bill to abolish the decision of Kais Saied of dissolving the Supreme Judicial Council.

The call for holding a plenary session in Parliament came after a meeting of the Parliament’s Presidency last Monday, during which it was decided to call for a plenary session to “abolish” Saied’s exceptional measures.

The statement issued by the Presidency of the Parliament stated that “a second plenary session will be held next Saturday, to discuss the serious financial, economic and social conditions that Tunisia is witnessing.”

Since last 25 July, Saied began a series of exceptional measures, where he announced freezing the powers of Parliament, lifting the immunity of the MPs, abolishing the body of monitoring the constitutionality of laws, issuing legislation by presidential decrees, chairing the Public Prosecution, and dismissing the government and replacing it with another one without approval from the Parliament.

On 22 September, Saied decided to suspend the majority of the Constitution’s chapters. Moreover, he continued to suspend the Parliament, to cancel the privileges of deputies and to disrupt the work of some constitutional bodies.

The political crisis in Tunisia has deepened after the President has announced, on 13 December, of organising a legislative election according to a new electoral law on 17 December, and to conduct a referendum on constitutional amendments to form a new constitution next July.