Tunisian parliament speaker Rached Ghannouchi on Thursday called for a peaceful struggle against a return to absolute one-man rule, a day after President Kais Saied took steps towards rule by decree, reported Africa News.
Ghannouchi described the country’s current situation as “a step back, a decade after Tunisia’s 2011 revolution.”
“We call on the people to take part in peaceful actions to resist dictatorship and return Tunisia to the path of democracy,” the head of the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party said in an interview with AFP.
The statement comes after Saied assumed the right to rule by decree and signaled his intentions to amend the country’s constitution as he prepares to change the overall political system.
Back in July, the Tunisian president sacked the Ennahdha-supported government of Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi, suspended parliament, and assumed executive authority.
Ennahdha, the biggest party in the divided legislature, condemned the July 25 moves as a “coup d’etat” and a violation of the country’s 2014 constitution.
Saied refuted the accusations that the move was a coup. He said the decisions were taken on the basis of Article 80 of the constitution.
In the interview, the 80-year-old Ghannouchi said the situation in the country is worse now than it was before July 25. He added that there were no arrests over blog posts before and nobody was banned from leaving the country.
President Saied has come under growing pressure from domestic and international bodies to appoint a new prime minister and explain how he intends to move past the crisis.
On Wednesday, the Tunisian presidency said Saied would form a committee to amend the political system. It said that other parts and clauses of the constitution would stay in force.
It said the parliament’s activities would continue to remain ceased with the immunity of all its members still suspended.
