Tunisia president indicates plans to amend constitution.
Tunisia’s President Kais Saied has indicated plans to change the country’s constitution, seven weeks after he seized power in moves his opponents called a coup.
The President said, he respected the 2014 democratic constitution but that it was not eternal and could be amended.
“Amendments must be made within the framework of the constitution.
“The comments represented clearest statement yet about what the president intends to do next, having sworn there was no going back to the situation in the North African nation before his intervention on July 25.”
The president was planning to suspend the constitution and offer an amended version via a referendum, prompting opposition from political parties and the powerful UGTT labour union.
The former constitutional law professor justified those moves by citing emergency measures in the constitution that his critics and many legal scholars said did not support his intervention.
He extended the measures after a month, he has yet to appoint a new government or make any clear declaration of his long-term intentions, as Tunisia struggles to confront a rolling economic crisis.
Saied pledged again to form a new government as soon as possible after selecting the people with the most integrity.
Saied’s intervention drew widespread support after years of political paralysis, but it has thrust Tunisia into crisis a decade after it threw off dictatorship and embraced democracy in the revolution that triggered the Arab Spring.
Political leaders have complained about the constitution since it was agreed in 2014, calling for it to be changed to either a more directly presidential, or a more directly parliamentary system.
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Kamila/Al-Jazeera
