Tunisian President Kais Saied on Monday announced the country will hold a referendum on constitutional reform in July and new parliamentary elections in December next year, reported Reuters.
In a televised address to the nation, Saied said the Parliament would remain suspended until Tunisians vote for a replacement assembly in December next year.
The Tunisian president said changes to the constitution would follow a public online consultation starting in January. He said he would hold a series of online consultations open to the public early next year to gather ideas for revising Tunisia’s Constitution, which would then go to a commission to draft amendments.
Mr. Saied had previously criticized the current Constitution since before it was adopted in 2014 after the fall of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.
Tunisians would vote on the new Constitution on July 25, 2022, the one-year anniversary of the day Mr. Saied suspended Parliament and took control.
The announcement of a plan to get the country out of the political crisis has been awaited since Saied ousted the government, suspended parliament, and assumed executive authority in July this year.
In September, the Tunisian president brushed aside most of the 2014 democratic constitution to say he could rule by decree during a period of exceptional measures and promised dialogue on further changes.
While his critics accused him of orchestrating a coup, he argued the exceptional measures were meant to save the country.
He named Najla Bouden Romdhane, a university engineer who worked with the World Bank, as the country’s first female prime minister, nearly two months after dismissing Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi.
“We want to correct the paths of the revolution and history,” Saied said in his speech on Monday, after lambasting critics of his intervention.
He said he would appoint a committee of experts to draft a new constitution, to be ready by June ahead of the referendum.
