Kais Saied introduces new amendments to election law – details
Tunisian President Kais Saied expressed his intention to amend the electoral law that will organize the parliamentary elections, which will be held on the 17th of December; in response to what he called the “national duty.”
According to a statement issued by the Tunisian presidency and published by the official African Press Agency, Saied said: “The amendment of the decree is related to the elections, especially after it became clear that a number of local council members did not perform the role assigned to them by law, and the sponsorship became a market where discredit is sold and bought, according to the statement.”
According to the statement, Saied said what he called “the national duty” requires curbing this phenomenon if current legislation does not achieve its goals.
Last September, Saied issued a presidential decree regulating the elections, including a system of voting for individuals instead of lists, requiring candidates to collect at least 400 votes, half of them women.
Twenty-five per cent of all approvals must be young voters as young as 35 years of age.
As usual, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Ennahdha movement, which is leading the elections frauds, is trying to question President Said’s intentions. Ennahdha renewed its call for “unifying efforts to confront what it called a coup, and escalating protests against the authority,” warning against the election law.
In a statement published yesterday, the movement claimed that “the current authority headed by Kais Saied bears responsibility for corrupting political life and turning the economic crisis into a disaster that threatens people’s lives and livelihoods.”
It called for “working for the restoration of the democratic path and the preservation of the revolution’s gains in freedom, democracy and national dignity.”
The upcoming early elections are one of President Saied’s exceptional measures, including dissolving the parliament and the Judicial Council, passing legislation by presidential decrees, and passing a new constitution for the country through a referendum on July 25, 2021.
Tunisian opposition groups, including the National Salvation Front (NRF), which includes Ennahdha, have called for a boycott of the upcoming elections, calling for their failure.
