Tunisia: PDL warns the ISIE against the organization of the referendum

The PDL warned the ISIE against “any measure sought at organizing a referendum or elections beyond the law and international standards and illegally spending public money”. The PDL called on the ISIE to compose a letter to the Head of State, whom it characterised as “governing under Article 80” (of the Constitution), not just to “notify him that the referendum can be organized by virtue of texts stemming from a body not permitted to legislate” but likewise to “demand the publication of a document connecting to the dissolution of the parliament and calling for the organization of early legislative elections”.

On the other hand, the PDL believed that the official silence of the ISIE about the verbal timetable list declared by Saied on December 13 is a “violation of the law”. It likewise condemned the remarks of some members of the ISIE who consented to engage in the “fraudulent electoral process”. “It is a perpetuation of the attack on the sovereignty of the people and in violation of all the fundamental rules of the electoral process”, qualified the PDL.

According to the statement, the party denounced the correspondence of the ISIE with the Ministry of Finance regarding the acquiring of approximately 80 million dinars from the state budget to execute this calendar not written in an official document. The party correspondingly recollected that the vice-president of the Independent Higher Authority for Elections, Farouk Bouasker declared to the TAP on February 27, that the ISIE is ready to organize the next election dates, adding that he has penned to the Ministry of Finance, concerning the funds required for the holding of the referendum and the early legislative elections “given that the finance decree-law for the year 2022 only cited regular expenditure of the community”.