Tunisians come to vote for the referendum on the constitution in Tunis on July 25, 2022. HATE DRIDI / AP
Hamza Oueslati’s face is tired from the scorching heat. On Monday, July 25, the 34-year-old laborer in shorts and flip-flops went to the polling station in the popular Hay Ezzouhour district of Tunis at midday to fulfill his voting requirements on the day of the referendum on the new Tunisian constitution. “Like every election since the revolution [en 2011]I don’t want people to vote for me,” he says.
A wish that the majority of Tunisians apparently do not share. In a Yes victory, which – due to the boycott by the opposition – there was little doubt about, the main problem was voter turnout. But that was weak. At the end of the evening, the Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE) announced that at least 2.46 million voters, or 27.54% of the 9.3 million registered voters, had taken part in the consultation and indicated that it was preliminary trade numbers. According to a ballot box survey conducted by the Sigma Conseil institute, the “yes” would have reached between 92 and 93 percent. It will be necessary to wait until Tuesday for the ISIE to announce its official figures.
Fear of autocratic drift
Fatma Zahra Mujahidi, a 32-year-old college teacher, said earlier in the day at the Denden voting center in Manouba, a middle-class suburb of Tunis that she “came mainly for a change, good or bad.” We must continue to participate, as young people, in the upheavals affecting the country, be it by voting against or voting in favor,” she added. And the authorities had done what was necessary to make this “participation” possible by offering the Polling stations were open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., a very long time given the standards used in other elections since 2011.
What was at stake was nothing more than the acceptance or rejection of the constitution proposed by the President of the Republic, Kaïs Saïed. The text envisages the establishment of a hyper-presidential regime that will break with the – predominantly parliamentary – political system after 2011 and arouse fears of an autocratic drift. The country has not had a constitutional referendum in twenty years. The latest dates back to 2002, when ex-dictator Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali wanted to remove the three-term presidential limit in order to remain in power. The “Yes” had collected 99% of the votes at the time. “We all knew at the time that it had been manipulated,” Hamza Oueslati recalls. We didn’t even bother to go to the polls. But here it is different. Today’s constitutional election is a project based on the will of the people. During the campaign, many residents of popular neighborhoods expressed their support for President Kais Saied, in contrast to the massive opposition from the elites.
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