The opposition National Salvation Front in Tunisia called today, Tuesday, for early elections after recording a limited participation in the referendum on the new draft constitution, while President Kais Saied said that the country entered a new phase after this referendum.

The Independent Electoral Commission is expected to announce the results of the referendum this evening, after it revealed last night that the number of those who voted amounted to two and a half million voters, which is equivalent to 27.5% of the more than 9 million registered voters.

Al-Jazeera correspondent in Tunisia, Hafez Merbih, said that 92% of the voiced votes supported the draft constitution proposed by President Said, while the rest voted not to approve, according to the Sigma Konsai Foundation for sounding opinions on Monday evening.

The referendum took place in light of the boycott of the opposition parties, including the Ennahda movement, which was the major force in the dissolved parliament.

Responses from various political parties follow successively to the referendum, which is supposed to result in the approval of the new draft constitution, which establishes a presidential system instead of the quasi-parliamentary system that has been in place since 2014, and grants the president wide powers in return for marginalizing the powers of Parliament.

Early elections

In a press conference in the Tunisian capital today, Tuesday, the head of the National Salvation Front, Ahmed Najib Chebbi, said that the front is challenging the numbers presented by the electoral commission as contradicting what local and international observers have seen of a vacuum and a widespread boycott of the referendum.

Chebbi added that President Kais Saied had failed to legitimize his violation of authority, and called for early presidential and legislative elections to get Tunisia out of its crisis.

The head of the Salvation Front stressed that if there are reforms that can be introduced to the 2014 constitution, it must be done in a consensual and participatory manner.

During the same press conference, Deputy Speaker of the dissolved parliament, Samira Chaouachi, said that the Tunisian people rejected the new draft constitution by boycotting the referendum, and stressed that the Salvation Front adhered to the 2014 constitution.


The Secretary-General of the opposition Democratic Current Party, Ghazi Chaouachi, said that despite what he called fraud, superstition, and the use of state and public media, 75% of Tunisians boycotted the referendum and said "no to the happy constitution."

Chaouachi accused the Tunisian president of exploiting the state's capabilities for propaganda and calling for a yes vote in the referendum that took place yesterday, saying that "a minority of the people cannot impose the draft constitution, and we will continue the resistance."

For its part, the Labor Party warned of the repercussions of the referendum on the new constitution, and said that it would enter the country a new phase of political and social turmoil and consolidate the system of absolute autocracy, according to a party statement.

The statement added that there was nothing left for President Kais Saied but to resign and let the people determine their fate themselves, calling for a project to save Tunisia from what he described as a system of tyranny and employment, and to lay the foundations for a new Tunisia.

In turn, the Free Constitutional Party announced that it would not recognize the results of the referendum, accusing the Tunisian president of committing unprecedented violations of the rule of law.

Five parties affiliated with the "national campaign to overthrow the referendum", which are the Republican, the Democratic Current, the Ettakatol, the Workers and the Qasab, described the referendum as fake, as the Ennahda movement described it as fictitious.

President Said gave a speech among his supporters in the Tunisian capital (French)

new stage

On the other hand, and in a speech he delivered last night among a crowd of his supporters who gathered in Habib Bourguiba Street to celebrate the result of the referendum, the Tunisian president said that the turnout was large at the polling stations, and that if the referendum took place over two days, the turnout would have been higher.

Saeed revealed that the first decision after the referendum will be the enactment of a new electoral law.

President Kais Saied spoke of Tunisia entering a new phase after the referendum, and said that "what the people did was a lesson, and the Tunisians excelled in directing it to the world."

He added, "Today we crossed from one bank to another. From the shore of despair and frustration to the shore of hope and work, and we will achieve this thanks to the will of the people and the legislation that will be put in place to serve them."

Supporters of President Saeed celebrated the declared rate of participation in the referendum, considering it a success, and they raised slogans in this direction.

President Saeed had recently presented the new draft constitution to be an alternative to the 2014 constitution as part of a road map he announced last July, and to end with legislative elections next December.

Opponents of the Tunisian president see the referendum on a new constitution as a play, as "Saeed failed to obtain the people's approval, as evidenced by the fact that 75% of the voters boycotted the vote."