Tunisian president - The African Mirror

Jul

2021

I will not become a dictator – President

TAREK AMARA and ANGUS MCDOWALL TUNISIA'S president promised on Friday he would not turn into a dictator and rejected accusations he had staged a coup, as two parliament members were arrested following his decision to lift their immunity when he seized control of government this week. Tunisia has been thrust into a political crisis by President Kais Saied's move on Sunday to dismiss the prime minister and freeze parliament for 30 days, leading major parties to accuse him of a coup. Saied has yet to carry out steps that critics say are needed to reassure Tunisians, including the appointment of…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Tunisian president replaces head of television station

MEDIA FREEDOM

TUNISIAN President Kais Saied removed the head of the national television station, Mohamed al-Dahach, on Wednesday and appointed a temporary replacement, his office said, after calls to protect free speech. Saied on Sunday invoked emergency powers to seize control of the government, remove the prime minister and freeze Parliament in a move his foes have called a coup. He removed Dahach after an incident on Wednesday afternoon when officials from the journalists' syndicate and human rights league said they were forbidden entry to the station even though they had been invited to appear on a show. Amira Mohammed, the deputy…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Tunisian army to take over COVID-19 management

COVID-19

TUNISIAN President Kais Saied has announced that the military health department will take over management of the health crisis in the country amid a COVID-19 outbreak - an escalation of a battle that overpowers the prime minister. Tunisia is struggling to cope with a resurgence of the virus, with intensive care wards full and doctors overburdened by a rapid rise in cases and deaths and a lack of oxygen supplies. Saied's comments come after Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi sacked Health Minister Faouzi Mehdi on Tuesday amid an exchange of accusations over performance in the fight against the pandemic and the…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Tunisian president draws security powers into dispute with PM

NEWS

TAREK AMARA TUNISIAN President Kais Saied said on Sunday that his powers as commander of the armed forces also cover the internal security forces, not only the army, in the latest escalation of his dispute with the prime minister. Saied's comments threaten to draw the sensitive Interior Ministry into the political arena and potentially divide the security establishment as Tunisia's young democracy grapples with a coronavirus-induced slump as well as militant Islamists. Tunisia's 2014 constitution has until now been widely interpreted as putting the internal security forces and the Interior Ministry under the control of the prime minister. "The president…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

No poison in president’s envelope

NEWS

A suspicious envelope sent this week to Tunisia's Presidency did not contain any toxic, narcotic, dangerous or explosive substance, the country's Public Prosecutor has said. The presidency said on Thursday that the office manager for Tunisia's president had suffered a headache and short-term vision loss after opening the envelope on Monday. Reports on social media on Wednesday said President Kais Saied had been sent a letter that may have contained poison. However, the Public Prosecutor said in a statement on Friday that tests carried out on the suspicious envelope by a technical team had found that it did not contain…