Tunisian President Kais Saied on Tuesday met with Ibrahim Bouderbala, the new speaker of the parliament who was elected on Monday, reported The Africa News.
Tunisia held the first session of its new Parliament on Monday, almost two years after President Saied froze the previous one on July 25, 2021. He has concentrated nearly all powers in the presidency since he suddenly shut down the elected Tunisian parliament and moved to rule by decree, moves that opposition and critics have described as an undemocratic coup.
The president has rejected the accusations, saying that his moves were legal and necessary to save Tunisia from years of chaos at the hands of the corrupt, self-serving political elite.
A total of 154 lawmakers out of 161 were sworn in at the session on Monday amid strict security measures. The seven remaining seats, which are allotted to deputies from abroad, will be subject to future by-elections in the constituencies concerned.
The new Tunisian Parliament also elected Bouderbala as its speaker. Bouderbala, the former president of the Tunisian Bar Association, got 83 votes in the second round while his competitor Abdessalem Dahmani secured 67 votes.
The 71-year-old speaker will have Saoussen Mabrouk and Anouer Marzouki as two deputy speakers who were elected at the same session.
“From the decisive day in the history of Tunisia, we constitute a united and solid bloc, working hand in hand to take up the key and major challenge, namely the satisfaction of the aspirations of the Tunisian people,” Bouderbala said after his election.
The new parliament was elected in December and January in voting with a mere turnout of 11 percent. The main opposition coalition said it would not recognize the new parliament’s legitimacy due to such a low voting turnout.
The new Tunisian parliament operates under a constitution that Saied wrote last year in a referendum with an extremely low turnout.
