Rédaction Africa Links 24 with satarbf
Published on 2024-03-15 13:22:43
In one year, MPs have only passed 34 pieces of legislation, all of which are from the executive branch, and their only attempt to assert the independence of the legislative branch has fallen short.
A sounding board?
A year ago, during the establishment of the new Assembly of the Representatives of the People (ARP) in Tunisia, the opposition expressed concerns: instead of being a counterbalance, this legislative body looked more like a rubber stamp for President Kaïs Saïed.
A first assessment proves them right, as MPs have been notable for their lack of influence in the face of an all-powerful executive branch.
The legislative power, significantly weakened compared to previous terms, has little room for maneuver and appears largely subject to the president and the government.
Gathered for the first time in plenary session on March 13, 2023, the MPs were elected following a two-round vote that was heavily boycotted by the opposition.
Texts that promote abstention
These elections recorded a historically low turnout, just above 11%. The representatives of the people are the first to sit in accordance with the new Constitution adopted a year earlier.
The text limits their power and increases that of the president. It stipulates that the head of state can dissolve the ARP and gives him the right to govern by decree and to assume unlimited powers without a time limit.
In this limited framework, little work has been done by the MPs. Out of about a hundred draft laws submitted, only 34 have been passed, all originating from the executive branch.
Among these projects, a large part concerns the formal validation of loan agreements or conventions already concluded by the executive.
Stability above all
“This shows that this institution has become a rubber-stamp chamber for laws wanted and decided by the president,” comments Amine Kharrat, a political analyst within the organization Al Bawsala, responsible for monitoring the Parliament’s work during the previous term, but chose to “boycott” the new institution due to a disagreement with the ongoing political process and how Parliament was elected.
“We have done a lot, adopted several bills,” argues MP Fatma Mseddi, elected in 2014 under the banner of Nida Tounes, the party of former President Béji Caïd Essebsi, whom she left to support Kaïs Saïed since his power grab in July 2021. While she also mentions bills proposed by MPs, none have been passed so far.
Opaque operation
According to Amine Kharrat, there is “almost perfect alignment” between the MPs and the president. “There is rarely opposition against the executive, and when there is, it is always directed towards ministers, not towards the head of state,” he believes. “In the old Parliament, everyone had an ideology: Islamists, Destourians, nationalists, social democrats. Today, there is none of that,” regrets Majdi Karbai, a former center-left MP, whose mandate was suspended by the head of state in July 2021.
To date, the only attempt to break away from the executive by Parliament concerns a bill on criminalizing normalization of relations with Israel. While the bill began to be examined by MPs in a plenary session in early November 2023, the head of state expressed opposition to its adoption, despite the support of the parliamentary majority. The examination of the bill was suspended. Following this statement, the President of the ARP, Brahim Bouderbala, also retracted.
For once, several MPs who support the process initiated by the head of state have expressed their disagreement with him and accused Mr. Bouderbala of caving to pressure. Put back on the agenda at the end of February, the examination of the proposal was once again postponed. Disavowed by the executive in its first real attempt to exercise its legislative power, Parliament emerges even more weakened from this sequence.
A former head of the bar association, the President of the ARP is an unwavering supporter of Kaïs Saïed since he assumed full powers. He has radically obscured the functioning of the legislative body, restricting access to Parliament, especially within parliamentary committees, which still operate behind closed doors. “It’s a Parliament that functions without oversight. Previously, civil society organizations would report on the presence of MPs and their votes. That’s over now,” laments Majdi Karbai.
Nissim Gasteli and Monia Ben Hamadi, Economics for Tunisia, E4T.
Read the original article(French) on Tunisie Focus
