1/7 Recently published consultative committee's draft sheds new light on president KS draft #constitution 4 #Tunisia. Discrepancies btw both show that problematic provisions are conscious choices. Below table shows revealing differences btw committee's text & president's draft
2/7 The Chair and a member of the committee that developed the initial draft distanced themselves from President's proposed text. Cf. Text of their draft, letter by the chair, Pr.Belaid, & Pr. Amin Mahfoudh: bit.ly/3IcfADv & bit.ly/3uoHV3L
3/7 One point attracted activists' and commentators’ attention: the constitution entering into force following the referendum, i.e. implicitly, regardless of the result. Understandable concern esp. when we compare this wording with the one proposed by the Consult. Com.
4/7 President KS will certainly explain during ref campaign. Meantime, 1 way of looking at it is to consider that the President -who wants the constit dated July 25th (anniv date of the Republic)- is going back to some originalist implications of the ‘pouvoir constituant' : 👇
5/7 "The Constitution, act of the ‘pouvoir constituant’ cannot b subject 2 n an act by a ‘pouvoir constitué’", i.e. presidential promulgation. "the constitution enters into force as soon as adopted by the ppl...on July 25th"
6/7 It is true that French revolutionaries never accepted a promulgation for the constit. The 1st time it happened was 1848 in a spec context, and was promulgated by the speaker...a representative of the ppl.
7/7 Obviously, the question remains: is the 25th July referendum a consultative referendum or a constitutional one? President Kais Saied communiqué this morning suggests in principle that what is considered is indeed a constitutional referendum, TBC bit.ly/3OMrhmT
1. #Tunisia draft #constitution by Kaiss Saied’s is out. Below are initial remarks on the content of this text in particular on the political system, preamble, rights and liberties, and a few institutional design aspects:
2. POLITICAL SYSTEM:
The polit syst is a ‘presidentialist’ one following the tradition of post-independnce authoritarian Arab & African constit. It rests on 1 central, the president, around which a multitude of bodies gravitate while being, one way or the other, submitted to it
3. A bicameral and weakened parliament: A new chamber represents regions and provinces. Not clear from the text whether the law-making chamber is elected directly or not! One needs to wait for the electoral law.
1/14 Despite reports & statements, the #HoR-HSC Cairo meeting failed to reach a compromise on a constitutional basis for elections in #Libya. They have never been as far from this goal. But, their own measure of success is a different one from facilitating lections. THREAD
2/14 elections failed so far over only 2 provisions: eligibility conditions, & sequencing of elections. Current talks chose to use the draft constitution as an interim basis for elex and, to that effect, sought to amend its ‘’divisive issues’’. This was a recipe for failure:
3/14 By using the CDA draft, HoR-HSC automatically added a long -and ever-extending- list of unsurmountable issues. These include (in addition to eligibility and elections sequencing):
headquarters of the 2 parliament chambers;
Senate composition; &
decentralization.