Tunisia: Saied accuses parties of paying large sums to disrupt Elections

Tunisian President Kais Saied stressed yesterday, Wednesday, that freedom does not mean chaos and conspiring against the internal and external security of the state, pointing out that there are people who are distributing huge sums of money to citizens with the aim of disrupting the normal flow of the second round to elect the members of the Assembly of the Representatives of the People, or obstructing the normal flow of some public facilities, in addition to receiving huge sums from abroad with the aim of further inflaming the situation and undermining the stability of the Tunisian state.

While receiving Interior Minister Taoufik Charfeddine and National Security Director General Murad Saidan at the Carthage Palace, Saied stressed the need to apply the law on everyone, because state security and social peace cannot leave those who are desperate to strike it out of the circle of accountability and punishment.

According to a statement by the Tunisian presidency, the meeting dealt with the security situation in the country, and the actions of some people behind well-known lawlessness and undermining national security.

Saied accuses the political class that ruled the country after the 2011 revolution of plunging the country into political, social and economic crises. He says he is seeking to reform the situation, according to popular demands that called for holding accountable the Muslim Brotherhood movement, Ennahdha, and all those who participated in the Tunisian political process during the past 10 years, which they call the “black decade”.

Last week, Saied warned of parties that seek to undermine the state from within by targeting civil peace, stressing that they will fully shoulder their responsibilities. There is no room for anyone to replace the state and its institutions, he said.

He pointed out that the situation in Tunisia today, and what is happening by those drowning to the bone of corruption by hitting state institutions and assaulting their symbols, amounts to the crime of conspiring against the internal and external security of the state, stressing that these conditions cannot continue, and that these people cannot remain without punishment within the framework of the law.

He accused the opposing parties of trying to create crises to incite against state institutions and provoke attacks on Tunisians. He stressed that there is no room to go back, indicating his determination to put an end to “encroachment on the state.”

Saied’s comments came in response to criticism of his policies in the administration of the state by his opponents, amid demands for early presidential elections, led by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Ennahdha movement and its allies.