Reactions continued in Tunisia to President Kais Saied's decision - Thursday evening - to publish a new draft constitution that grants the president broad powers, and one of the officials revealed that the draft is different from the draft prepared by the advisory committees.

Ibrahim Bouderbala, head of the Economic and Social Committee of the Consultative Body for the Preparation of the New Tunisian Constitution, said that the draft constitution that was published on Thursday evening is different from the draft draft prepared by the advisory committees.

Bouderbala stressed - in a radio statement - that the owner of the project is the President of the State, Kais Saied.

For his part, the leader of the Ennahda party, Imad Khamiri, described the draft constitution as another strong blow to the course of the revolution, considering that it would restore the country to what it was before the overthrow of ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.

Separation of powers

In turn, Said Benarbia, director of the Middle East and North Africa at the International Commission of Jurists, told AFP that this draft constitution "overthrows the principle of separation of powers."

Benarbia also considered that the project establishes "a presidential system without checks or balances with a president with full powers, an impotent parliament, and a clipper judiciary."

"The president has given himself royal powers," said Mohab Karoui, director of the organization iWatch, which monitors government corruption.

As for the Secretary-General of the "Tunisia Forward" movement, Obeid al-Breiki, he praised the draft constitution, saying that it would allow people to "breathe and establish a new Tunisia."

Yesterday evening, President Said published in the Official Gazette a new draft constitution, which will be put to a public referendum on July 25, and grants the President of the Republic broad powers, in opposition to the existing parliamentary system.

The draft constitution stipulates that “the president of the republic exercises the executive function with the assistance of a government headed by a prime minister” appointed by the president, while the draft constitution significantly reduces the powers of parliament, in which a second chamber will be created, the “National Council for Regions and Regions.”

The draft does not state that Islam is the state religion as it was in the 2014 constitution. Rather, it says that “Tunisia is part of the Islamic nation, and the state alone must work to achieve the goals of pure Islam in preserving the soul, honor, money, religion and freedom.”


judges strike

For his part, the Secretary-General of the Tunisian Labor Union, Noureddine Taboubi, said that no one can silence their mouths, and that the judicial institution must be respected.

During a meeting with a number of associations and civil society activists with heads of judicial structures and judges on hunger strike, Taboubi called on judges to stop their strike, and President Said called for a review of the judges' dismissal decisions.

Al-Taboubi pointed to the need to continue the struggle in other ways and forms to ensure the interests of the citizens, stressing the union's support for the judges.

For his part, the head of the Tunisian Judges Association, Anas Al-Hammadi, said that judges are being subjected to unprecedented injustice during these days, adding that official bodies were counting on the judges' submission, but they persevered in their struggle for a month, as he put it.

And on Wednesday, the Coordination of Judicial Structures in Tunisia (non-governmental), announced the deterioration of the health condition of three judges on hunger strike for more than a week, in protest of their dismissal, among 57 judges, by President Said.