Tunisia – Opposition parties announce boycott of legislative elections scheduled for December

Location: Tunis-Tunisia

Language: Arabic

Duration: 00:03:29

Sound: natural

Source: A24 in Tunisia

Restrictions: A24 subscribers

Date: 09/19/ 2022

Storyline:

Tunisian opposition parties announced on Monday their boycott of the legislative elections President Kais Saied called for to take place on December 17^th. They declared opposition to his rule, which started July 25.

Republican Party, Ettakatol (Democratic Forum for Labour and Freedoms), Democratic Current and al-Qutb held a press conference in capital Tunis, during which they confirmed their decision to boycott.

Khalil Al-Zawiya, representative of Republican party, told A24 that this electoral law will perpetuate the weakness of MPs, who will represent their parties, rather than the people. In this case, MPs will have no patriotic role in monitoring the government which the President of the Republic monitors, to perpetuate individual rule.

Muhammad Al-Hamidi, representative of Democratic Current, told A24 that the purpose of Kais Saied’s electoral law is to eliminate politics and politicians, and produce a parliament free of parties.

Shotlist:

– Soundbite (Khalil Al-Zawiya – Representative of Republican party):

“This law will perpetuate the weakness of MPs, who will represent their parties, rather than the people. In this case, MPs will have no patriotic role in monitoring the government which the President of the Republic monitors, to perpetuate individual rule, degrading Parliament and political action. The voting method overturns political action, as candidacies are all individual and independent. This is the philosophy of Kais Saied ruling system, which is undemocratic and does not allow for the development of political activity in Tunisia.”

– Soundbite (Muhammad Al-Hamidi –  Representative of Democratic Current):

“All the electoral laws in the world aim to develop political activity and encourage citizens to participate in politics, except for Kais Saied’s electoral law, which aims to eliminate politics and politicians and produce a parliament that is free of political parties, unity or vision. He wants a parliament that acts only on his will. This is among many reasons why we will boycott these elections. We call on all Tunisians to boycott these elections and confront this political bulldozer destroying what is left of the country.”

– Soundbite (Riyad bin Fadl – Coordinator for al-Qutb):

“This law perpetuates a parliament that has no power; a figure head only. Currently, there are 161 blocs, meaning that we went from 217 to 161 MPs, all representing themselves as individual and independent blocs. Therefore, the government of parliament is meaningless, powerless, and lacking unified political, social or economic programme.”