TUNISIA
Background
Tunisian voters have approved a new constitution that would turn the country back into a presidential system, institutionalizing the one–man reign of President Kais Saied, who suspended the elected parliament and awarded more power to himself last year.
According to preliminary results, 94.6% of voters backed the new constitution in the referendum, which saw only 30%turnout. His critic has warned that the new constitution would erase whatever democratic gains Tunisia has made since the 2011 Arab Spring (Jasmine) revolution and push the country back into the authoritarian slide.
ARAB SPRING
Among the countries that saw popular protest bringing down dictatorship in 2011, Tunisia was the only one that witnessed a successful transition to democracy.
The Arab Spring protest began in Tunisia in December 2010, leading to the fall of the regime of Zine EL Abidine Ben Ali, who had been in power since 1987. Ben Ali had to flee the country in the face of a mass uprising
Quickly, protests spread to other Arab countries such as Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen and Syria. While protestors brought down the 30-year-long dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, the revolution did not last long in that country.
THE POLITICAL CRISIS IN TUNISIA
- The 2014 constitution put in place a mixed parliamentary and presidential system. Both the president and parliament were directly elected by the voters.
- The president was to oversee the military and foreign affairs, while the Prime Minister, elected with the support of a majority of lawmakers, was in charge of the day-to-day affairs of governance.
- In the democratic elections, the Islamist Ennahda party, which has ideological links to the pan-Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement, emerged as a main political force in the country, which upset the secular sections.
- The country had nine governments between 2011 and 2021. Its economy was already in a bad shape, and the COVID -19 crisis made it worse.
- Tunisia has one of the highest per capita COVID death rates in the world. Amid the mounting economic and healthcare crisis, protests broke out against the government in July last year. Protesters stormed the offices of Ennahda, the ruling party
- As unrest was spreading, Mr Saied moved in, sacking the Ennahda-backed Prime Minister Hichem Mechich and suspending Parliament, plunging the country into a constitutional crisis.
- Under the 2014 constitution, such rises should be settled by a constitutional court, but the court had not been formed yet.
- This allowed the president a free hand to rule the country by decrees. He declared a state of emergency, appointed a Prime Minister to run the government, and dissolved the suspended parliament earlier this year while simultaneously moving to rewrite the constitution, awarding himself more powers.
KEY CHANGES IN THE NEW CONSTITUTION
- The new charter seeks to take the country back to the presidential system, undercutting the power of parliament
- The President will have ultimate authority to form a government, name ministers (without Parliament’s approval), appoint judges and present legislation directly to the legislature.
- It would also make it partially impossible for lawmakers to remove the President from office.
- Over the past year, President Saied has sacked many judges, tightened his control over the judiciary, and taken over the country’s election body.
- The Supreme Independent Elections commission (ISIE). Previously the nine members of the ISIE were appointed by the Parliament.
- Now, the President can directly appoint the members’ .he has left no doubt about how he is planning to rule the country.
- The International Commission of Jurists, Geneva-based advocacy, has said the new constitution lacks essential checks on presidential powers and would return Tunisia to an autocratic constitutional order.
HAS THE REVOLUTION BEEN UNDONE?
The referendum is clearly a victory for Mr Saied who could now claim legitimacy for one-man rule, but the low turnout and boycott of the vote by most political parties show that Mr Saied is still on a slippery slope.
In comparison with other countries hit by Arab Spring Tunisia, managed well in its transition, but the continued political turmoil suggests that the country is yet to recover from post-revolutionary chaos.
