Polling stations stayed open in the blistering heat from 6 a.m. ![]() Both activist groups and political parties have questioned the legitimacy of the results, pointing out that a supposed 30 percent turnout is hardly a foundation on which the president can build his much vaunted “new republic.”īut with the bitterly divided opposition only agreeing that the vote should be boycotted, it was unsurprising that the president’s new constitution passed and that turnout was low. That those who opposed the new constitution stayed away matters little at this point.Īccording to Tunisia’s Independent High Authority for Elections, known by its French acronym ISIE, around 95 percent of the 30.5 percent of eligible voters who turned out to vote on July 25 cast their ballots in favor of the new constitution. The president has passed his constitution with what he and his supporters will see as an overwhelming majority. Critically, there is no mechanism to remove the president, with ministers, along with the security services, police, and judiciary, all now answerable to one man. ![]() The new constitution grants Saied vastly unchecked powers, creating a parliament that’s responsible to him and allowing him to fast-track his own legislation at the expense of the body’s own. TUNIS, Tunisia-In Tunisia, activists and politicians are coming to terms with the passage of President Kais Saied’s new constitution last month and a new vision of the future-one where their relationship with power has been fundamentally altered.
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