Yesterday, the Tunisia president said Parliament will stay suspended until elections next year, and a referendum is set to revise the constitution for July. President Kais Saied said elections are scheduled for December 2022. So Parliament will stay suspended until "elections take place under new laws on the 17th of December next year," he said.
The 2014 constitution, which established a hybrid presidential-parliamentary system, was seen as a compromise between influential Islamist – inspired party Ennahdha and its secular rivals.
President Kais Saied is a politician, jurist, and retired university constitutional law professor. He has been serving as the president of Tunisia since October 2019. He won the election without a party or much funding, with overwhelming support from the youth.
There are fears that he may be seeking to institute an autocracy, reversing the gains of the Arab Spring – pro-democracy protests and uprisings that challenged authoritarian regimes. In September, he declared that he would rule by decree and ignore parts of the constitution. During his speech on national television, yesterday he announced that "other draft constitutional and other reforms will be put forward to referendum on the 25th of July".
From the 1st of January to the 20th of March, they will; gather suggestions for consultation and other reforms. Furthermore, a committee will examine them until June so that the Referendum is ready before the country's annual independence.
Ever since he froze Parliament and dismissed the then-president back in July, the Tunisian president Kais Saied has continued to cement his hold on power. While stressing that his action has been necessary to shake a corrupt political status quo reinvigorate the failing economy.
In his speech said, “ So if it's not possible for the sovereign people to practice its rights in the framework of a text, then there needs to be a new text. "
The envoys of the G7 democratic, developed economies plus the European Union had urged Tunisia on Friday to respect “fundamental freedoms” and set a timeline for a return to democratic institutions.