Tunisia.. The Electoral Commission announces the final results of the referendum and the fate of the new constitution

The head of the Independent High Authority for Elections in Tunisia, Farouk Bouaskar, announced the acceptance of the new draft constitution for the republic, which was put to a referendum on July 25, to become an effective constitution for the country.

Bouaskar said in a press conference held on Tuesday evening to announce the final results of the referendum that after the issuance of judicial rulings in the appeals against the rejection, we will announce today the final results of the referendum.

He added that "the administrative judiciary confirmed the integrity and transparency of the electoral process and refuted accusations of fraud," stressing that "the referendum took place in a democratic and pluralistic atmosphere," as he put it.

He stressed that the new constitution shall enter into force from the date of the announcement of the final results and its seal by President Qais Saeed as a new constitution for the republic.

According to Bouaskar, the number of registered voters was 9,278,543 voters, of whom 2,830,944 voters participated in the referendum, 94.6% of whom voted in favor of the new constitution.

Several political forces rejected the results of the referendum, including the National Salvation Front, the Ennahda Movement and the National Campaign to Overthrow the Referendum (a coalition of 5 leftist parties), given that 75% of the people did not participate in the referendum on the new constitution.

Tunisia has been experiencing a severe political crisis since July 25, 2021, when President Said took exceptional measures, including dismissing the government and appointing others, dissolving the Parliament and the judiciary, issuing legislation by presidential decrees, passing a new constitution for the country through a referendum last month, and early parliamentary elections to December 17 Next first.

Tunisian forces, including Ennahda, which has the largest bloc in the dissolved parliament, consider these measures a "coup against the 2014 constitution and the consolidation of absolute individual rule", while other forces see them as a "correction of the course of the 2011 revolution."