Tunisian crisis spiral upwards as President dissolves parliament

Kais Saied, Tunisia’s president, has issued a decree dissolving parliament, which has been suspended since last year, after it defied him by voting to repeal decrees he had used to assume near total power.

The parliament session and Saied’s response intensified Tunisia’s political crisis, though it was not clear if it would prompt any immediate change to his grip on power.

Any attempt to arrest parliament members who took part in Wednesday’s session, as Saied’s threat of investigations may imply, would escalate rapidly between the president and his opponents.

“We must protect the state from division … We will not allow the abusers to continue their aggression against the state,” Saied said in a video.

His opponents accused him of a coup when he suspended the chamber last summer.

“We are not afraid to defend a legitimate institution,” said Yamina Zoghlami, a parliament member from the moderate Islamist Ennahda. “The people did not withdraw confidence from us. The president closed parliament with a tank.”

Kais Saied, says his actions are constitutional and necessary to save Tunisia from years of political paralysis and economic crisis at the hands of a corrupt elite. He says he will form a committee to rewrite the constitution, put it to a referendum in July, and then hold parliamentary elections in December.

Tunisia’s 2014 constitution says parliament must remain in session during any exceptional period of the kind announced by Saied last summer, and that dissolving the chamber should trigger a new election – though he has not yet announced one.

The Free Constitutional party, a main opposition party that polls predict would be the biggest in parliament if elections were held, urged Saied to call early elections after the dissolution of parliament. Abir Moussi, the party head and a supporter of the late tyrannical president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, said Saied has no choice, according to the constitution, and should call elections within three months.

Major western donors have urged Saied to return to the democratic path and normal constitutional rule.

Tunisia threw off autocratic rule in a 2011 revolution and introduced democracy, but its system that shared power between president and parliament has proved unpopular.