Tunisia’s President Seizes Control of Country’s Electoral Commission

Tunisia’s president, who earlier this month dissolved the country’s parliament, has now seized control of the country’s election commission. President Kais Saied announced in a decree that he will replace most of the members of a new seven-member commission, and that the new judges will be appointed by the Supreme Judicial Council, a panel that he unilaterally replaced earlier this year. Saied will personally name the commission head.

Saied in July of last year dismissed his government and seized a number of powers by granting himself executive authority in what critics have called a coup. In September 2021, he announced that he would rule by decree. A month later, he appointed a new prime minister, and then approved a new cabinet of political neophytes, coming from academia or who were civil servants, which he dissolved earlier this month. Saied wants to amend the 2014 constitution, which he says he will then submit to a popular referendum in July, ahead of the December elections.

Tunisia became a democracy in 2011 as part of the Arab Spring revolutions. Its democratic president and parliamentary form of government has experienced some difficulties. Saied was elected president in 2019.