TUNIS, Tunisia

Tunisia's Ennahda movement said Thursday it will boycott a planned referendum this month on a new version of the country’s constitution.

Ennahda spokesman Emad al-Houmairi termed the July 25 referendum on the new constitution as “illegitimate.”
“Ennahda calls for boycotting the constitutional referendum and considers it illegitimate, illegal and issued by a coup authority,” he told a press conference in the capital Tunis.

He said the draft constitution “will undermine the pillars of the civil state and law and paves the way for an autocracy.”

On Tuesday, Tunisian President Kais Saied urged Tunisians to vote “yes” on the draft constitution during the July 25 referendum.

Under the new constitution, the government will answer to the president not to the parliament.

The document also gives power to the president to dissolve the parliament who could serve for two terms of five years. The 142-article draft also says that Tunisia is a republic with a presidential system.

Tunisia has been in the throes of a deep political crisis that aggravated the country's economic conditions since Saied ousted the government, suspended parliament and assumed executive authority in July 2021. He later dissolved the assembly after lawmakers held a session to revoke his measures.

Ennahda was the largest bloc in the dissolved the assembly.

While Saied insists that his measures were meant to "save" the country, critics have accused him of orchestrating a coup.

*Writing by Ahmed Asma