Dozens of Tunisians demonstrated in the south of the country to protest against what they described as the coup against the constitution carried out by Tunisian President Kais Saied, while a demonstration in support of the president took place in the capital.

On the other hand, more than 100 members of the Ennahda movement - including leaders - announced their resignation from the movement due to what they considered a failure to reform the party, and in the face of the president's exceptional decisions.

The demonstrators in the Resistance Square in the center of the city of Sfax (south of the country) demanded the return of the constitution and democratic institutions, and they rejected all the exceptional measures taken by the President of the Republic on July 25.

The security forces dispersed the demonstrators, and prevented them from clashing with a number of President Saeed's supporters who tried to join them and raised slogans against them.

In the Tunisian capital, dozens of supporters of President Said Sabiha organized today, Saturday, a sit-down in front of the Municipal Theater, on Habib Bourguiba Street, to express their support for the president's decisions, and called for the dissolution of Parliament, which the President of the Republic has suspended since last July.

Some supporters of President Said burn a copy of the Tunisian constitution (European)

burning the constitution

The president's supporters burned a copy of the country's constitution, demanding that the president rescind what they called the "Renaissance Constitution" and replace it with a new constitution, which prompted the Public Prosecution to open an investigation to find out the circumstances of the incident.

On the other hand, the "Citizens Against the Coup" movement - which brings together civil and political activists from different currents - called for a demonstration tomorrow, Sunday, in protest against the exceptional measures approved by President Saeed and according to which he disrupted Parliament, and for his announcement of his intention to amend the constitution, and the adoption of a temporary organization of powers according to which all The power is in his hands.

Last Wednesday, the president issued a presidential order that strengthened his powers, as he announced the abolition of the constitutionality monitoring body (independent judicial), and decided to issue legislation by presidential decrees, and to assume the executive authority with the help of the government.

In a related context, the Free Constitutional Party condemned today, Saturday, the content of President Said's recent presidential order, considering it a perpetuation of absolute individual rule and an undermining of the concept of the republic.

This came in a statement issued by the party headed by parliamentarian Abeer Moussa, who has always supported the president and opposed the Ennahda movement, the largest party in parliament.

Organizations denounce

Today, Saturday, 18 Tunisian and international human rights organizations rejected - in a joint statement - the decisions of the Tunisian president, according to which he strengthened his powers in the constitution at the expense of the government and parliament, and considered them "singular in governance" and an "unprecedented deviation."

Among the human rights organizations that signed the statement, the branch of Amnesty International in Tunisia, "Human Rights Watch", the World Organization Against Torture, and the Tunisian Association for the Defense of Individual Liberties.

The organizations statement said that the president of Tunisia "reflected the general rule of constitutional supremacy, by giving presidential decrees a legal rank higher than the constitution," and condemned "the seizure of power in the absence of any form of guarantees," and all the powers entrusted to the presidency of the republic "without any time limit." ".

The Tunisian Association of Democratic Women also expressed its rejection of the recent presidential order issued by President Said, according to which he combined and monopolized the authorities "without regard to the demands of human rights defenders in Tunisia," according to the association's statement.

She added in her statement that the President of the Republic "has not fulfilled his commitment to form a government, set the time limit for the exceptional situation, and open files of corruption, political assassinations, terrorism and all those involved in it."

On the other hand, 6 Tunisian parties - in a joint statement - described the recent decisions of President Said as "an important step in the direction of rooting the option of cutting with the decade of ruin, destruction, corruption and corruption, and with the choices of governments that were only a front for the rule of the mafia 'barons' led by the Ennahda movement and its allies."

The parties called on all progressive and patriotic forces to engage in the course of correcting the revolution.

The statement bore the signatures of the Tunisia Forward Movement, the People's Movement, the Popular Current, the Alliance for Tunisia, the Ba'ath Movement, and the National Democratic Socialist Party.

Resignations of the Renaissance

On the other hand, more than 100 members of the Ennahda movement, including leaders, announced their resignation from the movement because of what they considered a failure in the party's internal reform battle, and in confronting President Kais Saied's decisions.

Among the resigned were deputies and former members of the movement's Constituent Assembly, members of the Shura Council, and regional officials, including former Minister of Health Abdel Latif El Makki, and leaders Samir Dilou and Mohamed Ben Salem.

The statement held the movement's leadership responsible for what they described as the movement's wrong political choices that led to its isolation and its failure to actively engage in any common front to resist what he called the imminent authoritarian danger represented by President Qais Saeed's decisions on September 22, according to the statement.

Will the #resigns from the #Ennahdha Movement establish a new party?

: Samir Dilo clarifies https://t.co/UCK3RSY1dE

— Radio Jawhara FM (@Jawhara_FM) September 25, 2021

Abdellatif Al-Makki said - in a previous publication for Al-Jazeera - that the decision to resign from the movement came after the accumulation of wrong choices on the Tunisian experience over the past years, and criticized what he described as the movement's management with a wrong vision internally and externally.

On the other hand, Riad Al-Shuaibi, advisor to the President of the Ennahda Movement, expressed his regret over the mass resignations submitted by leaders with a history within the movement, and Al-Shuaibi called - in a previous interview with Al Jazeera - to postpone the differences and turn around the movement to confront what he described as a blatant coup.

A spokeswoman for the Ennahda Shura Council, Sana al-Marsani, said - in contact with Al Jazeera - that the council rejected the new formation of the executive office proposed by the movement's head, Rashid Ghannouchi, and added that the Shura Council postponed reviewing the case until next week.

Ghannouchi had dismissed the party's executive office last month, in an attempt to calm the protests against him because of his handling of the crisis in Tunisia, and the way the party has run since the 2019 elections.