Middle East & Africa | Constitutional con

Tunisia’s president is pushing an ominous constitution

Kais Saied will probably get his way, but his new charter will solve little

Presidential candidate Kais Saied speaks as he attends a news conference after the announcement of the results in the first round of Tunisia's presidential election in Tunis, Tunisia September 17, 2019. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed - RC12E8B90D60

In a past life Kais Saied might have flunked himself for turning in such shoddy work. Once a constitutional-law professor with a reputation for exactitude, now Tunisia’s president, Mr Saied gave himself a big homework assignment this year: draft a new constitution. As with many a group project, it got going late, leaving his fellow authors just a month to overhaul the existing national charter. He finally released the text hours before a self-imposed deadline, only to admit a week later that it contained mistakes.

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “A reform that makes matters worse”

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