With low voter turnout, the Tunisian people approved a new constitution on Monday. The electoral commission gave the provisional turnout at 27.5 percent. According to a post-election poll, 92.3% of the votes cast supported the referendum. It is intended to expand the President’s powers at the request of the titular Kais Saied.
Critics fear for the democratic gains made with the 2011 Arab Spring. “We are going to found a new republic, unlike the last ten dark years. We want the rule of law. The people have the last word,” Saied said after voting Monday. fair. He had scheduled the vote on the grounds that he wanted to overcome a political and economic standstill in Tunisia.
Shortly after the result was announced, hundreds of Saied supporters in the capital Tunis gathered on the Habib Bourguiba avenue downtown to celebrate. “Sovereignty is for the people,” they chanted, dismissing concerns about a return to autocracy. “We are not afraid of anything. Only the corrupt and the officials who looted the state are afraid,” said Noura bin Ayad, a 46-year-old woman waving a Tunisian flag.
There was little public interest in the vote. Few attended polling stations in Tunis’s congested rush-hour traffic. “I have no hope of change,” said Samir Slimane. Saied just aspire to full power. “I’m frustrated with all of them. I’d rather enjoy this hot day than go vote,” Samia, who is sitting on La Marsa beach with her husband and teenage son, said of the politicians.
Tensions in the country rose ahead of the referendum. Hundreds of people gathered in central Tunis over the weekend to protest the new constitution. They fear it will be the basis for a renewed dictatorship in the North African country.
Tunisia is the only country that emerged as a democracy from the Arab Spring. However, there is dissatisfaction among the population because the gap between rich and poor is increasing. The state is in economic crisis and has been hit hard by the corona pandemic.