- Tunisia’s President Kais announced the dissolution of the country’s parliament at a meeting of the National Security Council. The announcement came hours after the parliamentarians in an online plenary session, voted against a bill against his “exceptional measures”.
Tunisia, the birthplace of the ‘Arab Spring ‘is witnessing severe political setbacks pushing it towards autocracy. Tunisia’s President Kais announced the dissolution of the country’s parliament at a meeting of the National Security Council. The announcement came hours after the parliamentarians in an online plenary session, voted against a bill against his “exceptional measures”. The parliament voted to repeal presidential decrees suspending their chamber and giving Kais Saied absolute power.
The online parliamentary meeting was scheduled to happen on Zoom on March 30th. But video platforms Zoom and Teams were blocked from 2 pm on the day. After the two platforms became inaccessible, the MPs moved their meeting to the GoToMeeting platform. About 123 MPs participated in the session, to vote on controversial measures taken by the President last July, such as the suspension of parliament, the sacking of the prime minister, and the seizure of vast judicial and legislative powers. Out of the total 123 MPs, 116 MPs voted in favour of the law that was intended to invalidate Saied’s power grab.
Though the Arab spring brought a political revolution that overthrew long-time dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisians became increasingly frustrated by the stalemated political system and elected President Kais, former law professor as the President in 2019. On July 25 last year he sacked the government, froze the assembly and seized wide-ranging powers. He also grabbed powers to rule and legislate by decree and seized control over the judiciary.
Political analysts are apprehensive about the development and feel that Tunisia, which is already in the grip of an economic crisis is heading towards political instability also.
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