The day Tunisia’s democracy died

Brookings Institution, SpotlightLeave a comment

As for why so many Tunisian sec­u­lar­ists and liberals—who might have oth­er­wise been expect­ed to defend democracy—found them­selves tempt­ed by Saied’s strong­man rou­tine, part of the expla­na­tion lies in the Mid­dle East­’s long­stand­ing demo­c­ra­t­ic dilem­ma. Appre­ci­at­ing democ­ra­cy in the­o­ry is dif­fer­ent than lik­ing its out­comes in prac­tice. In Tunisia, as in much of the rest…

Hundreds Protest Tunisian Referendum

African News Review, VOA News AfricaLeave a comment

Tunis —  Hun­dreds of pro­test­ers gath­ered in cen­tral Tunis on Sat­ur­day to demon­strate against a ref­er­en­dum to be held on Mon­day on a new con­sti­tu­tion that they reject as ille­gal. Pres­i­dent Kais Saied pub­lished the draft con­sti­tu­tion, giv­ing him­self far more pow­ers, reduc­ing the role of the par­lia­ment and judi­cia­ry, and remov­ing most checks on…

Tunisia is sliding back into authoritarianism. Here’s what the US should do.

Elections and Democracy, Spotlight, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Nine long months have passed since the start of the slow-motion coup in Tunisia, a coun­try that, until recent­ly, offered one of the best hopes for democ­ra­ti­za­tion in the Mid­dle East. After shut­ter­ing the par­lia­ment with tanks in July, Pres­i­dent Kais Saied has sus­pend­ed the con­sti­tu­tion and dis­solved the Supreme Judi­cial Coun­cil. In per­haps the most disturbing…

Kaïes Saied

Tunisians Fight to Save Democracy

Elections and Democracy, Headline, North Africa

PAVIA, ITALY (AFRICA NEWS MATTERS)  Democ­ra­cy has tak­en a hit in the African nation of Tunisia, once again. This comes 10 years since the Jas­mine Rev­o­lu­tion.  Tunisi­a’s Pres­i­dent Kais Saied con­tin­ues to adopt mea­sures that con­tra­dict his con­sti­tu­tion­al duties. Fol­low­ing elec­tions in 2019, the num­ber of inter­nal divi­sions with­in the par­lia­ment began to grow. Recently…