Tunisia: Ex-President urges Parliament to ‘revolt’ against its dissolution by the President

The former Tunisian President, Moncef Marzouki, called on the Parliament to ignore the decision of its dissolution by President Kais Saied, “because the person who announced its dissolution represents himself only, since he does not have any legitimacy since his coup against the Constitution.”

Marzouki considered that the Parliament has to “continue its work and seek to attain the quorum to remove a person who has proven that he is fit for everything except to be the Head of a State like Tunisia.”

Marzouki said, in a statement published Thursday on Facebook: “The military and security forces are responsible today to clearly choose with whom they stand, with the state, Constitution, and the higher interest of the country, or with a man who deceived his voters, lied to Allah, broke his vows, and divided Tunisians in an unprecedented way.”

“He has destroyed all modern institutions of the state, seized all the powers in favour of him, his family and his friends, and exacerbated the level of political tension and instability in an economic crisis that threatens Tunisians for the first time in their modern history with starvation. Not to mention the huge damage he has caused to the image of our people, as excluded us from the club of advanced democratic countries.”

READ: Tunisia’s Ghannouchi says anti-terror unit summoned 30 lawmakers after online session

“The responsibility of the judiciary, press, civil society organisations, youth and the true democrats is to halt the coup, and to prosecute the person who implemented the coup, along with the four traitors who backed him in his high treason, which means the Secretary in charge of a government that does not exist, the Minister of Interior, Foreign Affairs, Justice and all those who participated in this tragedy,” Marzouki said.

Marzouki continued: “It is everyone’s responsibility to return sovereignty to the people through quick presidential and parliamentary elections, to guarantee that Tunisia finally resumes building the state of law and institutions under the Constitution of the revolution, which guarantees political stability, without which there is no economic, social and cultural advancement.”

On Wednesday evening, Saied announced the dissolution of the Parliament, which was suspended for eight months, “in order to preserve the State, its institutions and the Tunisian people,” noting that his decision is according to Chapter 72 of the Tunisian Constitution.

The decision came hours after the Parliament held a virtual session and approved, with absolute majority, a decision to abolish the exceptional measures of President Kais Saied.