Tunisia will hold a constitutional referendum next July, announced President Kais Saied on Monday, months after seizing powers in “exceptional measures,” that many saw as a coup.
In a speech on national television on Monday, Saied said that the Parliament of Tunisia would remain suspended until Tunisians vote for a replacement assembly on December 17, 2022.
The referendum vote would take place on July 25, a year after Saied’s seizure of near-total executive authority in the country.
“We want to correct the paths of the revolution and history,” he said, after lambasting critics of his intervention.
Brushing aside most of the 2014 democratic constitution, Saied said he could rule by decree during a period of exceptional measures, and promised dialogue on further changes.
In September, Saied named Najla Bouden Romdhane, a little-known university engineer, as the country’s first female prime minister, nearly two months after dismissing Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi.
Manifestations denounced Saied’s takeover as a coup, fearing a major setback to the democratic gains won in the 2011 revolution.
However, the president has consistently defended the move as the only way to end governmental paralysis after years of political squabbling and economic struggles, deepened by the coronavirus pandemic.
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