Tunisian president receives first draft of new constitution

Tunisian president Kais Saied received on Monday the first of draft of the new Constitution.

Under his own timeline, Saied has until June 30 to approve or edit the draft constitution, less than a month ahead of the referendum planned for Juy 25th.

"The conditions (for drafting the Constitution, ed) were difficult because of the short time we had at our disposal. But we managed, thanks to everyone's efforts, to submit this first version of the Constitution. We hope that this will satisfy Mr President (Kais Saied, ed)", said Sadok Belaïd, coordinator of the "National Consultative Commission for a New Republic" charged with drafting the new document.

The planned referendum marks one year since the power grab by Kais Saied that saw him sack the government and suspend an elected parliament.

The President wants to replace the current constitution, the product of a hard-won 2014 compromise between bitter political rivals, but which enshrined a mixed parliamentary-presidential system that often produced political deadlock.

The revised constitution is at the centre of Saied's programme for rebuilding Tunisia's political system, more than a decade after the revolution that sparked the Arab Spring uprisings.

Islamist party Ennahdha and other opposition forces were excluded from Saied's "national dialogue" and have fiercely criticised his roadmap, accusing the President of wanting to impose a constitution tailor-made for his own ambitions.