• Voting began in Tunisia on Monday on a constitution viewed as a vote on President Kais Saied.The
• Charter would grant the president practically unfettered powers in a departure from the democratic trend since 2011.
• Around 9.3 million of Tunisia’s 12 million adults registered to vote or have been automatically enrolled.

TUNIS: Tunisians began voting on Monday on a constitution viewed as a vote on President Kais Saied, whose charter would grant his office practically unfettered powers in a departure from the country’s democratic trend since 2011.

At around 11,000 polling locations across the North African nation, voting began at 6:00 a.m. (0500 GMT) and was scheduled to conclude at 10:00 p.m.

At one polling site in a school in the heart of Tunis, six people waited outside as voting began, while the entrance was guarded by two soldiers with assault guns and a few police officers.

In a power grab during political and economic crises, the president fired the government and froze parliament exactly one year ago.

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According to the ISIE electoral commission, around 9.3 million of Tunisia’s 12 million adults have voluntarily registered to vote or have been automatically enrolled.

They include approximately 356,000 overseas voters, whose voting began on Saturday.

Last year, many Tunisians backed the president’s fight against political parties and the often-stuck parliament, which was the only democracy to come out of the Arab Spring in 2011.

Saied’s popularity will be tested following a year of one-man rule in which he expanded his powers but made little headway on the economy.

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