After the Tunisian constitution referendum, what is the role of the parties to withstand the imposition of the fait accompli policy of President Kais Saied?

Tunisia -

Observers conclude from reading the results of the referendum on the draft constitution in Tunisia that there is a significant increase in the size of the boycott.

After President Qais Saeed concentrated power in his grip a year ago under the exceptional measures, developments in the political scene show a noticeable decline in the influence of political parties on the scene, despite their anti-president movements, in contrast to the emergence of greater mobility in the activity of civil society organizations defending democracy.

About 30% of the more than 9 million voters participated in the vote on the draft constitution, in which the president abolished the parliamentary system and established a presidential system with broad powers, meaning that about 6 and a half million voters refused to participate, either through reluctance or boycott.

Politicians assert that the 94 percent "yes" vote on the constitution is a punitive vote against the system of parties that "failed to govern" over the past ten years, while others believe that the lack of participation in the referendum does not only mean a rupture with the parties but with the president.

Protests in the capital Tunis against the new draft constitution a few days ago (Al Jazeera Net)

Parties from a bygone era

For his part, political activist Hatem Al-Maliki tells Al Jazeera Net that the political parties' failure to keep pace with the developments in the living reality of citizens and the priorities of their demands was the origin of the emergence of a rupture with the parties, in return for civil society organizations maintaining a better view of public opinion thanks to their services provided.

Maliki explains that the fall of the former regime during the 2011 revolution shook the dust of the major political movements that were active before the rise of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to power on November 7, 1987, when he began focusing at that time on the foundations of an authoritarian rule that undermined partisan pluralism.

The major political families that were active in the Tunisian University before the rise of the dictatorship belonged to several ideological currents, such as the leftist family, the constitutional family, the national movement, and the Islamic political family that focused their activities in the diaspora to escape security prosecutions after 1987, according to El-Miliki.

The activist adds that the fall of the former regime removed the curtain on those old families, so they appeared after the revolution "outside their time in a reality they did not know before", then they regained their activity, but with the mentality and orientations of the eighties and did not turn into modern political movements, but rather focused only on winning votes to monopolize power.

On the other hand, Al-Maliky notes the emergence of greater mobility in the activity of civil society organizations, thanks to the positive image that has stuck in people's minds, as they defend human values, rights, freedoms, and the economic and social conditions of citizens regardless of who rules.

Weak participation in the referendum process (Al Jazeera Net)

A rupture that included the president

For his part, Muhammad Larbi Jelassi, a leader in the Democratic Current party boycotting the referendum, acknowledges the existence of a “clear chasm” between Tunisians and political parties, but he believes that boycotting more than half of the electoral body for the referendum is a boycott of the parties, of President Kais Saied and of all political life.

Al-Jalassi tells Al-Jazeera Net that what can be deduced from reading the numbers of participation in the referendum is that the political parties and the President of the Republic are far from the reality of Tunisians, noting that the real path is to improve economic and social conditions and not write a constitution "stuffed with errors."

For him, the more the parties moved away from their original role in providing economic and social solutions, the scales of their influence diminished and their reluctance increased. He attributed the deepening estrangement with the parties to their deviation from their goals aimed at reforming the situation and their failure to find solutions to poverty, unemployment, and dropping out of education.

When asked whether the de facto policy of President Said will further weaken the role of the parties, he says that what the Tunisian president has done since last year represents a real opportunity for the parties to correct their course and modernize their methods and programs to respond to the reality of the Tunisians and regain their role.

Zuhair Hamdi: Voting in favor of the president's project was a punishment for the political class that did not make any promises (Al-Jazeera)

Punitive vote against parties

For his part, the Secretary-General of the Popular Current Party, Zuhair Hamdi, who supports the president's path, says that Tunisia is living in the midst of these transformations, a paradox represented in the existence of a complete estrangement between Tunisians and the traditional political elite that ravaged the country and was involved in corruption, smuggling, terrorism and the impoverishment of Tunisians, as he sees it.

For Hamdi, the results of voting yes for the new draft constitution were not surprising to him, given the state of contempt faced by the political elite, stressing that voting in favor of the president's draft was a punitive vote for the political class that ruled the country after the revolution and did not fulfill any promises.

On the other hand, he believes that, after the changes that have affected the political scene, political parties still have a role to fortify the course correction, considering that parties are a major component of modern democracies since they were created, and they are a major political actor in framing peoples and societies.

ceiling of promises

In the view of the social researcher, Mohamed Brik, the reason for the alienation of more than half of the total body of voters from political life and parties can be reduced to reaching an extreme state of frustration due to the deterioration of their lives at all levels, and discovering that the electoral promises of the parties were nothing but “vaporized illusions.”

He tells Al Jazeera Net that the big mistake that most parties have fallen into, whether from political Islam or the leftist movement or others, is to raise them to the ceiling of electoral promises, as electoral campaigns have appeared claiming to employ about half a million Tunisians in one year, or to increase the monthly wage by twice.

The state of ideological polarization between the parties and the state of rivalry and tension within the parliament between the parties fueled the state of Tunisians' contempt for the political class, in the midst of the deterioration of their conditions and the inability of successive governments to run the country due to inefficiency or artificial obstructions, according to Brik.

What explains the support of a part of the people for President Said, who took exceptional measures last July 25 that overthrew the government, froze Parliament and isolates the Supreme Judicial Council, is the thirst for change in the hope of the best, in addition to their fear of the political vacuum and the unknown.

The researcher notes that the Tunisian street has become alienated from the role of the parties, which is currently declining in denunciation, denunciation and protests, while the president is going to the maximum speed, believing that it would have been better for political parties to self-criticize their performance in the previous stage and prepare for the upcoming elections.

As for the role of the newly formed civil society organizations and bodies that have formed alliances with each other in the midst of these transformations, Brik says that civil society will remain the basic nucleus of society and in the defense of freedom, economic and social rights, democracy and the fight against corruption, among others.

Brik believes that civil society is able to provide proposals and solutions and play a major role in this phase the country is going through, but in turn, he pointed out that civil society organizations suffer from a lack of funds and an inability to move compared to political parties.