Tunis, Mar. 31, (dpa/GNA) - Tunisia’s largest political party, the Ennahda Movement, on Thursday rejected the president’s decision to dissolve parliament and said it was a “new violation of the constitution.”
President Kais Saied ordered the dissolution of parliament on Wednesday, eight months after his decision to suspend it. His announcement came hours after lawmakers held a meeting and voted to revoke the president’s exceptional measures.
Saied described the parliament meeting as a “failed coup attempt” and a “conspiracy against the security of the state.”
The Islamist Ennahda party, led by Parliament Speaker Rached Ghannouchi, said in a statement that Saied’s latest move aims at “dismantling the state and its institutions, and is a new violation of the constitution.”
Saied’s measures have swept “the country away from the constitutional path to building democracy, took it into an unknown path,” Ennahda said and held the president responsible for the deteriorating economic and social situation in the country.
Last year, Saied suspended parliament and sacked the sitting prime minister, Hichem Mechichi; expanded his legislative and executive powers; and suspended some parts of the country’s constitution.
He plans a constitutional referendum in July and legislative elections are scheduled for December.
Saied’s measures have divided the country, and protests have been staged by both his supporters and opponents. Observers fear that a social split could endanger Tunisia’s stability.
Assistant secretary-general of the influential Tunisian General Labor Union, Sami al-Tahiri, praised Saied’s move and told Shems FM private radio that the president’s decision came late but was a necessary step.
GNA