Tunisia electoral body says proposed charter approved by over 2.6 million

Tunis, Tunisia (AFP):

The final results of a controversial referendum in Tunisia showed 94.6 percent of those who cast ballot favored the new constitution, the electoral authority said Tuesday.

Voters overwhelmingly approved the new constitution, the electoral board said, officially announcing definitive results from the July 25 poll.

The charter was approved by just over 2.6 million people, the board’s president Farouk Bouasker told reporters.

Turnout was considered very low at 30.5 percent.

The referendum came a year to the day after Saied sacked the government and froze parliament in what rivals have branded a coup.

Despite the low turnout, Saied’s move against a system that emerged after the 2011 overthrow of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was welcomed by many Tunisians.

However, opposition politicians and human rights groups have warned of a return to dictatorship under the new constitution.

Tunisia is mired in crisis with growth of just three percent, nearly 40 percent of young people jobless and four million people out of a population of nearly 12 million in poverty.

For weeks the heavily indebted country has been negotiating a new loan with the International Monetary Fund, hoping to obtain $4 billion, and also the chance to open other avenues of foreign aid, mainly European.