Tunisian ruler makes latest power gambit as local economy crumbles
TUNISIA’S president unveiled constitutional changes that’ll be put to a referendum in July, risking riling opponents with a move dubbed a power grab just as the country needs consensus to secure help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The draft reform of the constitution was published in the official gazette on Thursday, with a presidential decree linking it to plans to set up a “new republic.”
The revisions will update a 2014 charter that was the result of painstaking negotiations between the North African nation’s myriad factions in the aftermath of its Arab Spring revolt. In contrast, the proposals were drafted by a panel picked by President Kais Saied, who critics accuse of seizing powers that threaten to tip Tunisia back into dictatorship after he suspended parliament almost a year ago.
The proposed reforms boost presidential prerogatives and dilute those of both the assembly and the judiciary. The text introduces a national council of regions and provinces to share legislative duties with the assembly of representatives.
The President, said the text, assumes “executive functions” and is “helped” by a government and a prime minister he names. The draft also relegates the status that the legislative and judiciary branches had under the current constitution to a role akin to public servants. Judges, security and customs officials will also be banned from striking.
The draft document “provides for an unbridled presidential system,” said Benarbia, the Middle East and North Africa regional director at the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists, said on Twitter.
The July 25 vote comes at a crunch time for Tunisia, which is in talks with the IMF for a rescue package seen as key to staving off a default after years of economic malaise and intermittent political crises.
Central bank officials have warned the ukraine war is causing greater turmoil than the pandemic as inflation hits its highest since 2018, calling for an import curb to protect foreign reserves and ensure the country can afford crucial grains, fuel and medicine.
Saied, a former constitutional law professor, is presenting the revised charter as the cornerstone of what he calls a “new republic.” The surprise winner of 2019’s presidential election on an antiestablishment ticket, he’s been ruling by decree since last year while sidelining the judiciary, asserting he’s acting to save Tunisia from chaos and corruption.
His moves initially found support among Tunisians struggling with the economic impact of Covid-19 and frustrated by years of bickering between lawmakers in the country’s divided parliament.