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Kais Saied said that the 2014 charter is “not eternal” and can be amended within existing constitutional means.
Tunisian President Kais Saied has expressed plans to amend the country’s constitution seven weeks after seizing power in what his opponents called a coup.
Saturday’s comments represent Said’s clearest statement about what he intends to do next, and he vowed to “not return” to the situation in North African countries until he intervenes on July 25.
Said said on live television on a avenue in the center of Tunisia that he respects the 2014 democratic constitution, but it is not eternal and can be modified.
“It must be amended within the framework of the constitution,” he told Sky News Arab Channel and Tunisian National Television.
An adviser to Said told Reuters on Thursday that the president plans to suspend the constitution and propose a revised constitution through a referendum, which has aroused opposition from political parties and the powerful UGTT union.
Since Said announced the dismissal of the prime minister and adjourned parliament on July 25, concerns about Said’s intentions have increased, both internally and in Western democracies that support Tunisia’s public finances.
The former professor of constitutional law defended these actions by citing emergency measures in the Constitution. Critics and many legal scholars said that these measures did not support his intervention. Although he extended these measures indefinitely a month later, he has yet to appoint a new government or clearly announce his long-term intentions because Tunisia is struggling to cope with the spreading economic crisis.
Said said on Saturday that he will form a new government “as soon as possible” after he elects the “most upright person.”
However, he declined to give a specific timetable.
The ambassador from the developed economies of the Group of Seven countries this week urged the Tunisian president to quickly form a government and restore “constitutional order, in which the elected parliament plays an important role.”
After years of political paralysis, Said’s intervention has received widespread support, but ten years after Tunisia got rid of autocracy and embraced democracy in the revolution that triggered the Arab Spring, it has pushed Tunisia into crisis.
Since the constitution was passed in 2014, political leaders have been complaining about the constitution, calling for it to be changed to a more direct presidential system or a more direct parliamentary system.
Article 144 of the constitution stipulates that amendments to the document can only be submitted to a referendum after two-thirds of the approval of the parliament. Said last month described the institution as “a threat to the country”.
The current parliament was elected in 2019, a week after Saied was elected. He has no right to dissolve it and call a new election, but some parties in this highly divided parliament said they can do it themselves.
The moderate Islamic Baath Party, the largest party in the parliament with a quarter of the seats, accused Said of launching a coup, and said on Saturday that deviating from the constitution would mean withdrawing from democracy.
Tunisia’s main trade union UGTT also expressed opposition to the idea of suspending the constitution on Saturday, but instead called for new parliamentary elections-Said may now be considering this route.
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