Tunisia charting a new political course in Brotherhood's absence
Tunisian President, Kais Saied, has been bent on changing the Tunisian landscape since taking his exceptional measures of dissolving the parliament and sacking the cabinet on July 25, 2021.
Plan
Some people believed the measures
taken by the president aimed only at getting rid of Ennahda Movement, the
branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Tunisia.
Giving credence to this belief was
the failure of the movement in running Tunisian affairs after the 2011 events
in the country.
However, Saied seems to have goals
far larger than getting rid of Ennahda.
The Tunisian leader apparently wants
to bring all parties that contributed to increasing unrest in Tunisia following
2011 to account.
He has been locking horns with most
Tunisian parties for five months now.
He especially targeted the political
parties that initially backed his July 25, 2021 measures, but then turned
against the same measures.
The president sidelined these
parties by launching an electronic platform on a trial basis earlier this
month.
The platform will receive
suggestions from ordinary Tunisians on the amendments that need to be
introduced to the Tunisian constitution in the coming period as well as the
political reforms the North African state needs to initiate.
This is the first step in a
political roadmap unveiled by President Saied on December 13, 2021.
The map also includes legislative
elections and a referendum on amendments to be introduced to the constitution.
The platform, the Tunisian president
said, aims to open societal discussion on constitutional, legal, health and
social matters.
It is the Tunisian president's tool
to give ordinary Tunisians the chance to participate in decision-making after
they were marginalized for many years in the past.
National platform
Tunisian political parties criticized
the platform, considering it a populist measure by the Tunisian president.
The Tunisian leader threatened,
meanwhile, to punish those who overlook the will of the Tunisian people.
