Hundreds of people demonstrated this Sunday in Tunis, Tunisia, against the draft of the new Constitution, which must be submitted to a referendum in July and the dismissal of 57 judges by the president, Kais Saied.
“The people want independence from justice” and “Constitution, freedom and dignity”, chanted the protesters who took to the streets in response to the call of the “National Salvation Front”, a coalition of a dozen organizations that oppose the regime Tunisian, including the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party, Kais Saied’s main opponent.
At the base of the protests is the “national dialogue” launched by the President two weeks ago to draft a new Constitution, ahead of the legislative elections scheduled for December.
The dialogue has been boycotted by the opposition, including the powerful UGTT trade union organization, which claims that key sectors of civil society and political parties are excluded.
A draft of the new constitution is due to be handed over to President Saied on Monday, before being presented to the population in a month’s time through a referendum.
“This referendum is just a fraud,” Ali Larayedh, leader of the conservative Islamist Ennahdha party, told AFP. who was the main force in the parliament dissolved by President Saied on July 25, 2021.
“We demonstrate against the exclusion of the judiciary and against the coup against the Constitution” adopted in 2014, three years after the fall of the Zine El Abidine Ben Ali dictatorship, he added.
On June 1, President Saied dismissed 57 judges by decree, citing various grounds, including “corruption”, “adultery” and obstruction of investigations, after strengthening his tutelage over the judicial system.
This decision, denounced by several non-governmental organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, as a “direct attack on the rule of law”, provoked a strike by Tunisian magistrates against the dismissal of colleagues, in a protest that will enter the Monday of your third week.
Source: Observadora
