Tunisia/ TEH: Tunisian President Kais Saied promised, on Saturday, that the next parliament will express the will of the citizens, stressing that the upcoming elections will take place according to a new voting system.
Saied said, in a speech broadcast on the presidency’s Facebook page, that “the martyrs of the homeland who fell on the ninth of April 1938 demanded that sovereignty belongs to the people.”
He added, “Tunisia has a history full of the glories of its martyrs and enlightened national thought.”
On Saturday, coincides with the 84th anniversary of the martyrs’ day of the April 9, 1938 events, in which dozens of Tunisians were killed by French soldiers in peaceful marches to demand a Tunisian parliament and political reforms during the French occupation of the country (1881-1956).
Saied added, “The Tunisians are disappointed in parliament (…), but the next parliament will express their will honestly and sincerely, unlike what happened in recent decades.”
And he considered that “the dialogue will only be with honest patriots, away from all those who fell into the arms of the outside (without naming parties).”
Saied explained that the elections “will come based on a new voting system.”
The Tunisian president did not clarify the nature of the new mechanism, but he recently reported more than once about a tendency to change the voting system to the method of voting for individuals instead of lists, as was the case in the past.
Weeks ago, Saied announced that “a popular referendum will be organized on July 25, with the participation of everyone to express their opinion on the nature of the political system, and then a committee will begin later to formulate the results of the referendum in a legal text, and the people will say their word when organizing the elections on December 17 next”.
On March 30, the Tunisian parliament held a virtual public session, during which it voted in favor of annulling Saied’s “special” decisions.
Hours after this session, Kais Saied announced the dissolution of parliament, claiming to “preserve the state and its institutions,” considering that the parliament meeting and what was issued by it “a failed coup attempt.”
Tunisia has been experiencing a severe political crisis, since last July 25, when Said began imposing exceptional measures, including: freezing the powers of Parliament, issuing legislation by presidential decree, and dissolving the Supreme Judicial Council.
Tunisian forces consider these measures a “coup against the constitution “, while other forces see them as a “correction of the course of the 2011 revolution”, which toppled then-President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, while Saied said that his measures are “measures within the framework of the constitution to protect the state from imminent danger.” reports the online magazine The Eastern Herald.
