Tunisian President Kais Saied yesterday celebrated the almost certain victory of the “yes” vote in a referendum on a new constitution that bolsters the powers of the head of state.
The referendum, held a year to the day after Saied sacked the government and froze parliament in what rivals have called a coup, saw at least 27.5 percent of 9.3 million registered voters cast ballots, Tunisia’s ISIE electoral commission said on Monday after polls closed.
An overwhelming 92 to 93 percent of those who voted supported the new constitution, according to an exit poll taken by the Sigma Conseil institute.
Photo: Reuters
Initial results were due at about press time last night.
After the projected outcome was announced on national television, Saied supporters drove cars in procession through central Tunis, waving flags and beeping their horns, with some singing the national anthem or shouting: “We would sacrifice our souls and our blood for you, Saied.”
At about 1am, the president appeared in front of a jubilant crowd.
Photo: AFP
“Tunisia has entered a new phase,” he said, according to local television, adding that “there was a large crowd in the polling stations and the rate would have been higher if the vote took place over two days.”
Monday’s turnout, which stood at 27.5 percent, was seen as a gauge of Saied’s popularity.
The previous legislative elections in 2019 attracted 32 percent turnout.
Without naming them, the president promised “all those who have committed crimes against the country will be held accountable for their actions.”
Many voters were from the “middle classes most impacted” by years of economic crisis, Sigma head Hassen Zargouni told reporters.
Saied’s move against a system that emerged after the 2011 overthrow of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali was welcomed by many Tunisians fed up with high inflation and unemployment, political turmoil and a system they felt had brought little improvement to their lives.
Turnout on the day was higher than many observers had expected, showing that Saied continues to enjoy personal popularity almost three years into his mandate.
“Tunisia will prosper from today onwards,” Imed Hezzi, a 57-year-old waiter, told reporters after voting. “The start of the new Tunisia is today.”
Saied’s critics have warned the new constitution would lock in presidential powers that could tip Tunisia back into dictatorship.
The new text would place the president in command of the army, allow him to appoint a government without parliamentary approval and make him virtually impossible to remove from office.
He could also present draft laws to parliament, which would be obliged to give them priority.
The new charter “gives the president almost all powers and dismantles any check on his rule and any institution that might exert any kind of control over him,” said Said Benarbia, regional director of the International Commission of Jurists. “None of the safeguards that could protect Tunisians from Ben Ali-type violations are there anymore.”
The text “doesn’t even envisage the possibility of a no vote,” Benarbia said.
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
A team of doctors and vets in Pakistan has developed a novel treatment for a pair of elephants with tuberculosis (TB) that involves feeding them at least 400 pills a day. The jumbo effort at the Karachi Safari Park involves administering the tablets — the same as those used to treat TB in humans — hidden inside food ranging from apples and bananas, to Pakistani sweets. The amount of medication is adjusted to account for the weight of the 4,000kg elephants. However, it has taken Madhubala and Malika several weeks to settle into the treatment after spitting out the first few doses they
RSS