Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed has just summoned the Tunisians for a referendum. On 25th July next, voters will vote for or against the adoption of a new Constitution.
It is a symbolic date that Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed has decided to hold to organize a ballot to amend his new Constitution. On July 25, it will indeed be a year to the day that the Head of State has assumed almost all the powers.
Since then, Kaïs Saïed has announced the dissolution of the Assembly of People's Representatives after having launched a national consultation to determine the main lines of its future Constitution.
Last Wednesday, late in the evening, the Tunisian president issued a decree to summon voters to a referendum on July 25 “for the referendum on a draft of a new Constitution of the Tunisian Republic”.
Unaccustomed to the exercise, Tunisians will have to answer a simple question: “Do you approve of the draft of the new Constitution of the Tunisian Republic? Still, despite everything, it will take time for voters to read the new texts. According to the Official Journal of the Republic of Tunisia (JORT), the new Constitution will be published no later than June 30.
The month of July is therefore likely to be surprisingly prolific in the Tunisian media. But not as much as the next few weeks. Because on the side of Carthage, it is now necessary to go very quickly to write the text in question. It was only last week that the President of the Republic appointed an advisory committee to draft a new Constitution for a “new Republic”. And it is the law professor Sadok Belaïd who has been appointed to head this body.
Until then, the question of participation will be central. Because, already, the opposition is calling for a boycott of the ballot. The opposition parties believe that Kais Saïed wants to set up a strong presidential regime, in which they will not necessarily have a say.
A very closed “national dialogue”
Especially since these same parties were de facto excluded from the "national dialogue" announced on 2 May by the President of the Republic, who preferred to surround himself with the Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT), the main trade union in the country, the Tunisian Union of Industry, Commerce and Handicrafts (UTICA), employers, the Tunisian League for Human Rights (LTDH) and the National Bar Association from Tunisia. A "national dialogue" in which the UGTT has announced that it will not participate.
Kaïs Saïed therefore set off for the campaign without the country's main forces – in addition to the UGTT, the Islamist party Ennahdha was excluded from the talks.
To campaign, Kaïd Saïed would have surrounded himself with another law professor, Amine Mahfoudh – who prides himself on being influential within the presidential palace –, Mohamed Salah Ben Aïssa and Sadok Belaïd, therefore. Questioned by a national radio, Amine Mahfoudh aims "a participation rate of nearly 40%" for the referendum.
The support of the president also provides, before the hour, “the political success of the referendum”. But the adoption of a new Constitution is only the beginning of the new Tunisian Republic. On December 17, after the electoral law has been revised – it too is already controversial – Tunisians will vote for their parliamentarians.