Tunisians accuse UAE firm of smearing Ghannouchi's reputation

Tunisian activists yesterday took to social media to accuse an Emirati company of hiring agents to hail the country’s President, Kais Saied, and smear Ennahda movement leader, Rached Ghannouchi.

A Tunisian woman said she had received a “job offer from an Egyptian girl, under which I could promote the Emirati company on social media in return for a monthly $250 salary.”

She said she was “surprised” to have received a request from her employer on her “first day to write and promote some content supporting Saied, and rebuking Ghannouchi,” local media reported.

Saied has held nearly total power since 25 July when he sacked the prime minister, suspended parliament and assumed executive authority citing a national emergency.

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He appointed a prime minister on 29 September and a government has since been formed. In December, Saied announced that a referendum will be held on 25 July to consider ‘constitutional reforms’ and elections would follow in December 2022.

The majority of the country’s political parties slammed the move as a “coup against the constitution” and the achievements of the 2011 revolution. Critics say Saied’s decisions have strengthened the powers of the presidency at the expense of parliament and the government, and that he aims to transform the country’s government into a presidential system.

On more than one occasion, Saied, who began a five-year presidential term in 2019, said that his exceptional decisions are not a coup, but rather measures within the framework of the constitution to protect the state from “imminent danger”.