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Tunisia's Saied unpicks young 'Arab spring' democracy

25 July 2022 05:18 (UTC +04:00)

Most photographs of Tunisian President Kais Saied on his official social media feed show him behind his desk with mouth open, lecturing a procession of subdued, deferential subordinates, APA reports citing Reuters.

That top-down approach, in which Saied directs and everybody else follows, is what his critics fear will be enshrined as Tunisia's new political system through Monday's referendum in place of a flawed, but relatively open, democracy.

Voters are being asked to approve a new constitution that formalises most of the sweeping powers Saied has seized since he moved against the parliament a year ago, circling its building with tanks and giving himself the right to rule by decree.

A former law lecturer with a stiff public manner, Saied has depicted his actions as a corrective to political dysfunction and corruption caused by the 2014 constitution that shared powers between president and parliament.

But his critics say he is a new dictator whose power grab a year ago was tantamount to a coup and whose march to one-man rule has trashed the democratic gains of Tunisia's 2011 revolution.

The constitution he announced last month creates a supreme role for the president, relegating both parliament and judiciary to functions of the state he will lead, rather than branches of power in their own right.

Having framed his July 25, 2021, seizure of powers as the start of a new republic, he set Monday's referendum on his new constitution on the anniversary of that date.

Saied was a political novice when elected president in 2019. Less than two years later, he outmanoeuvred his more experienced political adversaries, including the Islamist Ennahda party, with his sudden moves against the parliament and previous cabinet. These steps heralded the start of his bid to amass power.

They appeared to be hugely popular among Tunisians who were fed up with political bickering and economic malaise. Thousands took to the streets to celebrate and the president basked in a stated conviction that he represented the will of the people.