Political parties in Tunisia confirmed today, Saturday, their rejection of the presidential decree approved by President Kais Saied to amend the Basic Law of the Independent High Authority for Elections, and considered it a return to the era of "forgery".
In a statement issued by the "Coordination of Social Democratic Parties", which includes the Democratic Current, the Republican Party and the Bloc for Labor and Freedoms, the parties considered that the decision "marks Tunisia's return from the Great Gate to the era of fraudulent elections and falsifying the will of the voters."
She said that this decree "unmasked (President) Qais Saeed's program in establishing an authoritarian and dictatorial rule in which the people can exercise their sovereignty through the free choice of their representatives as required by democratic practice."
The coordination called for "mobilizing all energies and mobilizing forces to impose a return to democracy, end the course of the coup against the constitution, and save the state from attempts to dismantle it."
Labor condemns
In turn, the Labor Party (left) condemned this step, saying in a statement that "there is no purpose of the decree other than to seize any national or local electoral process."
He added that this "reveals the nature of Saeed's tendencies, which want to reproduce dictatorship, absolute autocracy and forging the popular will, which our people revolted against and generations made huge sacrifices in confronting it."
The party considered that "elections under the supervision of this body will not be fair or transparent, but rather they are completely challenged in terms of preparation, process and results."
For its part, Afaq Tounes said, "The decree is authoritarian and unilateral and affects the independence of the electoral body and raises concerns about the transparency of upcoming elections."
Presidential Decree
Yesterday, Friday, a presidential decree was issued in the Official Gazette (the Official Gazette of the Republic of Tunisia) to revise the Basic Law of the Independent High Authority for Elections, according to which the president will appoint the members of the authority’s board and its head.
The Independent High Authority for Elections is a constitutional institution that has been supervising elections since October 2011. It consists of 9 “independent, neutral, qualified” members who are elected by parliament by a two-thirds majority, and perform their duties for one period of 6 years, and a third of its members are renewed every two years.
Since July 25, 2021, Tunisia has been experiencing a severe political crisis following exceptional measures that Said began to impose, including the dissolution of parliament, the abolition of the constitutionality monitoring body, the issuance of legislation by presidential decrees, and the dissolution of the Supreme Judicial Council.
Tunisian forces consider these measures a "coup against the constitution", while other forces see them as a "correction of the course of the 2011 revolution," which overthrew the rule of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.