Tunisia: opposition says country has witnessed ‘huge circumvention’ to monopolise power

The National Campaign to Abolish the Referendum in Tunisia said on Wednesday that what has happened in the run up to this week’s vote on a new constitution is “a major scandal” and “a huge circumvention by the president to monopolise power.”

The campaign told a press conference that President Kais Saied believes the referendum to have been a success, despite the low turnout of voters. It added that the nominally Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE) “cannot be trusted” because it is “controlled” by Saied. “The ISIE moved away from its neutrality and condoned some practices that violate the legitimacy of the referendum.”

The ISIE announced on Tuesday that 94.6 per cent of those who took part in the referendum gave their approval to the new draft constitution. However, it was claimed that only 2,756,607 votes were cast, out of a possible 9.3 million eligible voters; the number who voted “Yes” was 2,607,848. In other words, just 28 per cent of the electorate approved of the new constitution drafted by Saied.

In a speech addressed to a crowd of his supporters in Tunis before issuing the preliminary results on Monday evening, President Saied said that polling stations had witnessed a large turnout and that Tunisia had entered a new phase. He affirmed that the first decision after the constitutional referendum would be to issue an electoral law that would change the mechanism for elections. He also promised to carry out major reforms in other areas of public life.

Tunisia: Washington warns that new constitution could compromise human rights

Opposition parties rejected the referendum result and called for early presidential and legislative elections. The National Salvation Front, an alliance of opposition parties in Tunisia, accused the ISIE of “falsifying” the referendum turnout figures.

According to the head of the Front, Ahmed Najib Chebbi, “The figures issued by the authority that organised the elections are exaggerated and not compatible with what was reported by observers. This authority is not honest and impartial; the figures have been falsified.”

Chebbi added that the only reference point for legitimacy in Tunisia is the 2014 constitution. “Kais Saied has no place to stay now. His coup has failed, and he must open the way for holding presidential and legislative elections so that stability prevails.”

He insisted that the low turnout in the referendum, which he said had been boycotted by “two-thirds” of eligible voters, proves “the failure of Kais Saied’s coup.”

As such, added Chebbi, any commitment by the International Monetary Fund with the current authority will lead to more social and political unrest. Tunisia requested a loan from the IMF to help it deal with a severe financial crisis that was exacerbated after President Kais Saied took over executive and legislative authority in July last year in what his opponents call a “coup against the constitution”.

Ghannouchi: The referendum was a ‘farce’ rejected by 75% of Tunisia