16 Dec 2022; MEMO: Tunisian President Kais Saied has taken advantage of the state resources to promote the next parliament, which he will control, rights group I Watch warned yesterday.
In a statement I Watch said Saied "made nine field visits during the electoral campaign, the last of which was a visit to the neighbourhoods of the District of Mnihla on December 11."
There was, it added, "a radical change in the speeches and movements of the president throughout the electoral campaign period, which converted from speeches with an institutional legal basis to speeches with a mere socio-economic content. He considered the socio-economic issues as the main issues for Tunisians, unlike what he was previously stating that the real problem of Tunisians is primarily a legal problem."
Saied was "taking advantage of the state resources" in a "hopeless attempt" to take advantage of "the deteriorated economic and social situation the country is experiencing" in an effort to motivate citizens to vote, I Watch continued.
"Saied continues to lay the foundations of dictatorship [and will form] a formal council that has been emptied of all its powers and authorities according to the constitution of July 25, and it will only be a council that obeys the orders of the individual ruler, President Kais Saied."
Elections are due to be held in Tunisia tomorrow after ballots opened for citizens living abroad yesterday.
