Tunisian president hints he will not accept foreign observers in next elections
By Tarek Amara
TUNIS (Reuters) – Tunisian President Kais Saied indicated on Thursday he is not going to settle for international observers for votes he plans this yr to vary the political system after having already taken management of the beforehand impartial electoral fee.
Saied has consolidated his one-man rule since seizing govt energy final summer season and dissolving the parliament to rule by decree in strikes his foes name a coup.
He has since mentioned he’ll change the democratic 2014 structure through a referendum in July and has mentioned he desires to carry new parliamentary elections in December.
“They proposed sending observers. Why? We’re not an occupied nation,” mentioned Saied, referring to international democracies which have beforehand offered observers to ensure the credibility of Tunisian elections.
Tunisia has been extensively praised for the equity of its elections because the 2011 revolution that launched democracy, with the final such vote in 2019 returning Saied as president in a second-round landslide.
He was talking at a ceremony to swear within the new members of the electoral fee after he unilaterally changed the earlier fee whose head had questioned the validity of a referendum referred to as outdoors the principles of the 2014 structure.
Saied’s consolidation of energy has accelerated in current weeks. In addition to taking management of the electoral fee, he has changed the highest judicial physique and threatened to limit civil society teams, giving the 64-year-old virtually complete management.
Saied this week appointed new members of the election fee, to be headed by Farouk Bouasker, seizing management of one of many final impartial our bodies within the North African nation and casting doubt on electoral integrity.
The disaster has endangered democratic good points made since 2011, when Tunisians toppled longtime autocrat Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, sparking a wave of revolts towards authoritarian leaders throughout the Arab world.
Saied has mentioned his actions had been wanted to save lots of Tunisia from years of financial stagnation and political paralysis by the hands of a corrupt, self-serving elite.
(Reporting By Tarek Amara, enhancing by Angus McDowall and Alistair Bell)
