The demonstration was organized at the call of five political parties, against the referendum planned for July 25 by the President of the Republic Kaïs Saïed
Tunisian police dispersed, on Saturday, manu militari a hundred demonstrators in the capital, Tunis, who were protesting against the holding of the referendum on the draft of a new Constitution, planned for July 25 by the President of the Republic Kaïs Saïed.
The Anadolu Agency (AA) correspondent indicated that the demonstration was organized at the call of five political parties, namely: the “Democratic Current”, the “Democratic Forum for Labor and Freedoms” (Ettakatol), the “Republican Party” (Al Jomhouri), the “Workers’ Party” and the “Modernist Democratic Pole”.
The five political parties on Thursday launched a “campaign to boycott the referendum on a new Constitution”, while Saïed had instructed a committee to draft the fundamental law for a “new Republic” and officially summoned voters for a referendum on a project of a new Constitution of the Tunisian Republic on 25 July next.
The AA correspondent reported that the police blocked demonstrators trying to reach the headquarters of the Independent High Authority for Elections (Isie), and dispersed them with tear gas.
The demonstrators chanted slogans such as: “Freedoms, freedoms… the police state is over!” and “Neither fear nor terror, the power belongs to the people”.
“We protest against the instance of the president (in allusion to the new Isie) as an instance responsible for ensuring electoral fraud, because we consider that its only purpose is to rig the referendum and the elections,” said, the general secretary of the Workers’ Party, Hamma Hammami, in front of the crowd of protesters.
The emblematic figure of the Tunisian left considered that the process initiated by Saïed “aims to destroy all the institutions of the State, to muzzle freedoms, and to allow the president to proclaim himself the new despot of Tunisia”.
“The police repressed us violently, that is to say the ugly face of this regime,” he added.
For his part, the secretary general of the “Democratic Forum for Labor and Freedoms”, Khalil Zaouia, told AA that “today’s demonstration was met with police repression and metal barriers were placed to prevent the demonstrators from reaching the headquarters of Isie”.
“We demonstrated peacefully, however, we were violently dispersed with tear gas, which is unacceptable,” Zaouia said.
For the time being, the Tunisian authorities have not reacted to these accusations.
The Head of State unveiled last December a roadmap supposed to get the country out of the political crisis, in which he announced a referendum on constitutional amendments on July 25, 2022, before early legislative elections on December 17, after the revision of electoral law.
The process initiated unilaterally by the tenant of Carthage came under criticism from the main Tunisian political parties, who announced a boycott of this referendum.
The Tunisian opposition accuses Saïed of “authoritarian drift” and of wanting to “establish a plebiscite regime”.
Tunisia has been suffering, since July 25, from an acute political crisis, when President Saïed imposed “exceptional measures”, dismissing the Head of Government, suspending the activities of Parliament before dissolving it on July 30 March 2022, and legislating by way of the decrees.
Several Tunisian political and civil forces reject these measures, which they consider to be a “coup d’etat against the Constitution”, while other forces consider them to be a “restoration of the process of the 2011 revolution”, which had brought down former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
