Tunisia – Leading female politician Abeer Moussa calls for new vote

Location: Tunis – Tunisia

Language: Arabic

Duration: 00:04:47

Sound: Natural

Source: A24 in Tunisia

Restrictions: A24 subscribers

Date: 28/07/ 2022

Storyline:

Leading female politician Abeer Moussa calls for new vote, joined other parties today in rejecting the results of Monday’s constitutional referendum.

At a Tunis press conference on Thrursday, Moussa said numerical errors in the vote were a “scandal” and urged President Kais Saied not to ratify the results.

That’s unlikely to happen. The new constitution hands President Saeid extensive powers and transfers most law-making decisions to his executive branch.

Saied held the referendum on the first anniversary of his dismissal of the country’s elected parliament and establishment of one-person emergency rule.

But Mousa insists Saied hold early presidential elections before September and subjects himself to the Tunisia people again.

She said severe dangers threaten the Tunisian State should the new constitution come into effect.

The leader of the Destourian Party outlined a roadmap “to correct the path” and vowed to cancel Saied’s constitution in the next session of parliament.

Shotlist:

– Soundbite(Abeer Moussa – Head of the Free Constitutional Party):

“The results and everything that happened on July 25, 2022, confirmed the integrity of the Free Constitutional Party’s orientation. From the beginning, we said that this path was fraudulent and aimed to attack the sovereignty of the Tunisian people. It seeks to pass forcefully at the expense of legislation. The concept of the rule of law and the institutions we adhere to the principle of the law is supreme. Therefore, we did not engage in the president’s path, as we did not recommend it. On the contrary, we filed judicial appeals. We requested to stop its implementation, and we did everything necessary to challenge the foundations of this path.

Today we look at the future and say that if Qais Saeed is honest and does not endorse fraud, then condemn what the election commission has done. He must denounce the conditions of the election process. He should  declare non-recognition  of  the announced results, nullify the referendum, and call directly for elections.”

– Soundbite (Abeer Moussa – Head of the Free Destourian Party):

“Today, we enlighten Tunisian and  International public opinion about the dangers that await Tunisia if this constitution enters into force. The first danger is that Tunisians will be threatened at every moment by a Presidential vacuum, which is very dangerous. This is because, especially since everyone knows that the Brotherhood still exists in the country. The foreign financing machine still exists, and the terrorist threat exists.

Any vacuum at the head of the state for any reason constitutes a danger, especially in the absence of a constitutional court.

According to the new constitution, the president of this court is the one who replaces the president.

The second danger, a legal error that Kais Said fell into, is the impossibility of taking the constitutional oath. He failed to consider the constitutional oath is sworn by an elected president who applies this new constitution and not according to a canceled constitution. And all these structures do not exist.

– Soundbite (Abeer Moussa – Head of the Free Destourian Party):

“Here, we no longer accept the continuation of this issue, especially since those who went to vote were deceived and deluded that the situation would change from hour to hour. They know this matter is illegitimate, and we do not accept any commitment that occurs with an illegitimate government. And therefore, we call for a speedy return to legitimacy through presidential and legislative elections so that structural economic and political reforms are ratified. Let Tunisia resume its natural path and close the dark arc imposed on us, which is the arc of the Brotherhood for 12 years and the turn to anarchy and destruction of the state we placed in the hands of Kais Saied.