President Kais Saied’s proposal for a new constitution went before Tunisians for a vote on Monday.
At 6 a.m. local time, polling places began opening their doors to the public (05:00 GMT). Over nine million people are anticipated to vote in the referendum, according to the Independent High Authority for Elections.
Saied, on the other hand, accused parties without naming them of creating a crisis to divert attention from the country’s true concerns. It was while on his way to vote in Tunis that Saied made a statement that threatened to prosecute those parties responsibly and bring them before the courts.
It was also his request for Tunisians to vote for the constitution and not leave the country, for those who, according to him, are working against it both in and out of Tunisia.” “We will start a new history together based on the accountability of the official in front of the people who elected him,” Saied remarked.
So far, 1.21 million people, or 13.6 percent of the electorate, had participated in the referendum, according to the country’s Independent High Elections Authority later that day (14:30 GMT). Elections are taking place “naturally,” and “voters are free to vote yes or no,” stated authority president Farouk Bouasker.
He said that once the polls close at 2 a.m. local time (02:00 GMT), they become voting centers.
Tunisia has been in a state of political turmoil since July 25, 2021, when Saied deposed the government and suspended the legislature.
Some in Tunisia perceive these actions as a “coup” against the constitution, while others see them as a “correction of the course of the 2011 revolution,” which deposed Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
“Save the country from impending peril” is the rationale behind President Saied’s five-year term, which began in 2019.
