02 Oct 2021; MEMO: Speaker of Tunisian Parliament Rached Ghannouchi has declared the resumption of parliamentary sessions, urging lawmakers to resume work, news agencies reported on Friday.
Ghannouchi defied President Kais Saied's suspension of Parliament and called in a statement for the resumption of Parliament's work on 1 October.
"The office of the Assembly of the Representatives of the People is in permanent session," Ghannouchi announced in a tweet.
The Parliament speaker said he rejected the "unconstitutional activation of Article 80" by Saied and considered all his decisions related to the suspension of Parliament and its committees "null".
According to Al-Quds Al-Arabi, he asserted that: "Decision 117, through which Saied suspended the Tunisian Constitution, was a theft of the power of Parliament and bringing all authorities in that hands of only one man," stressing that this goes against democratic values.
He called for Saied to "backtrack" from his decrees, stop the suspension of Parliament and launch a national dialogue to look for an exit from the current: "Dangerous crisis that threatens the stability of the state and unity of people."
Ghannouchi condemned the closure of Parliament headquarters and the incitement campaigns against the "elected" MPs, which are targeting them, their safety and reputations.
On Friday, Tunisian authorities closed all the ways leading to Parliament and prevented MPs from entering, while 90 MPs have called for resuming parliamentary work by 1 October.
