In Tunisia, the year 2023 will be punctuated by electoral meetings. The country is awaiting the second round of legislative elections and other deadlines such as the election of a second chamber called the Council of Regions. So many steps that should contribute to establishing grassroots democracy that the Tunisian President claims to be. Little enthusiasm, however, for this presidential calendar on the ground.
with our correspondent in Tunis, Amira Souilem
Make a clean sweep of the past. Establish what he calls a “true democracy”. This is the course that the Tunisian President Kais Saied.
The master of Carthage – who has held full powers for a year and a half and whose founding act was the freezing and then the dissolution of the National Assembly – sees 2023 as the year that will materialize its political project for Tunisia.
► Read also : in Tunisia: “There is a disillusionment with the revolution, democracy and its tools”
Main events of the year:
– The second round of legislative elections, the date of which has not yet been set.
– The election – and this is the great novelty – of a Council known as the regions by indirect suffrage. With elected representatives from each of the 24 governorates of Tunisia, this second chamber officially intends to give more power to the base on development projects in particular.
A supporter of so-called direct democracy, the Tunisian president – who has eliminated several checks and balances since taking control of the country – intends above all to continue to keep the traditional elites out of power.
Despite a bicameral parliament, it will nevertheless see its prerogatives weakened. He will no longer invest the government, will only be able to censor it with difficulty and will see the initiative for laws returning in priority to the President of the Republic.
A political project that does not seem to excite Tunisians according to the first round of legislative elections which attracted less than 12% of voters.
► Read also : in Tunisia, after the record abstention in the legislative elections, Kaïs Saïed comes out of his silence