President Kais Saied calls referendum for new Tunisia constitution

Leader continues to ignore opposition calls to reverse unilateral decision

President Kais Saied has excluded political parties from his drive to restructure Tunisia's political system. Reuters

Tunisian President Kais Saied issued on Wednesday a decree to call voters to a referendum on a new constitution on July 25, the official gazette said.

The long-anticipated move comes after Mr Saied last week named law professor Sadok Belaid to head an advisory committee to draft a constitution for a "new republic", in a process that explicitly excludes political parties from participating in the restructuring of the government.

The draft will be presented to the public on June 30, less than a month before voters will be asked to cast a ballot of either yes or no in response to the question: "Do you agree with the draft of the new constitution?"

Said Benarbia, Mena regional director of the International Commission of Jurists, said that under the current framework, Tunisians would not have enough time to analyse the document and make an informed decision.

"This a very short period of time that makes the entire process fundamentally flawed and inadequate," he said.

The country's main political parties said they would boycott any referendum on political changes and several civil society organisations have rejected the limited dialogue process proposed by Mr Saied.

Both the powerful UGTT union and the deans of law, judicial and political sciences faculties, both of which formed part of the quartet that won the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize for their roles in salvaging the 2014 constitution, refused their appointment to Mr Saied's advisory board.

Mr Benarbia said Mr Saied's inability to secure the participation of such important players did not bode well for the process.

"In and of itself, this is a constitutional crisis that shows, together with the exclusion of political parties, and the full range of civil society, how the proposed process lacks legitimacy and fails to meet basic standards of inclusiveness, participation and transparency," he said.

Despite their rejection, both entities were still listed as members of the board in the official decree.

The union said it would hold a national strike at state-owned entities and public service companies to protest against the president's unilateral moves.

The drafting and passing of a new constitution has been the core of Mr Saied's political project since he took sole control of the country last July, dismissing Tunisia's Parliament and ruling by decree.

As Mr Saied has grown increasingly isolated in the months since, hopes for a national dialogue to right the political system have faded.

The country's 2014 constitution was drafted by an elected constituent assembly in the years after the 2011 revolution. Mr Saied's proposed new constitution will be informed by the results of a national consultation conducted online earlier in the year, which saw paltry participation, with less than 7 per cent of eligible voters responding to the survey.

"Only a constitutional reform process that allows for the requisite public participation can lead to a constitution reflective of the views of large categories of the society," said Mr Benarbia.

"The failure to satisfy this standard undermines the right of all Tunisians to take part in the conduct of public affairs and to freely determine and choose the form of their constitution and government."