• There is a new constitution adopted in July.
• Tunisia’s president published an electoral law.
• It scales back but does not completely eliminate the function of political parties.

In accordance with a new constitution adopted in July, Tunisia’s president published an electoral law that scales back but does not completely eliminate the function of political parties in the country’s reformed legislature.

The changeover from choosing from a single party list to choosing individual candidates under the new law will reduce the power of parties in the election on December 17.

The most recent unilateral changes to Tunisia’s political system have been made by President Kais Saied since he took most of the country’s power in July 2021, a move his detractors dubbed an anti-democratic coup intended to install one-man rule.

Following previous fake elections, “we are travelling through a new stage in the history of Tunisia towards the sovereignty of the people,” declared Saied during a cabinet meeting on Thursday.

Political parties were not being barred, he claimed, and such claims were “lies and fabrications.”

The majority of Tunisia’s political groups have already declared their opposition to the bill and that they will boycott any elections held under Saied’s new constitution, which dramatically increases his power and almost eliminates all constraints on it.

The polls would be “held under the supervision of a body that is not neutral and is devoted to the governing authorities,” according to Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, the leader of the National Salvation Front, an organization that unites the opposition’s major groups in Tunisia, including Ennahdha.

He continued by saying that the boycott was a reaction to an electoral law that had been “authored by Saied alone” and was a “coup against constitutional legitimacy.”

Officially, just 30% of voters participated in the referendum that resulted in the passage of the constitution, but opposition parties charged that the government had inflated even that low proportion of turnout.

The previous democratic constitution, which was adopted in 2014, gave the parliament primary responsibility for creating governments while giving the president less direct authority.

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