Tunisia

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisia’s president and its shaky, decade-long experiment with democracy are facing an important test Sunday as voters cast ballots in the second round of parliamentary elections.

Turnout was just 11% in the first round of voting last month, according to the electoral commission, as many disaffected Tunisians stayed away and the influential Islamist party Ennahdha and other opposition movements boycotted.

11 Jan 2023; MEMO: The Tunisian journalists' union warned on Tuesday of the dangerous effect of presidential decree 54 regarding freedom of expression and the press in light of the initiation of lawsuits against President Kais Saied's opponents.

TUNIS, Jan 9 (NNN-TAP) – Tunisia’s naval guards rescued 305 Italy-bound illegal migrants from sinking boats, off the country’s coasts late Saturday night, National Guard Spokesman, Houcemeddine Jbabli said, yesterday.

The naval guards have foiled eight attempts by illegal migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, to cross the Mediterranean, Jbabli said in a statement.

Tunisian authorities will take necessary measures against the illegal immigrants, it noted.

02 Jan 2023; MEMO: A former official of Ennahda Movement, Samir Dilou, expressed on Sunday his astonishment at President Kais Saied's claim of a plot to assassinate him.

Dilou said the claim about the existence of a person plotting to assassinate the president is dubious after all efforts to establish the identity of this person have failed.

TUNIS, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- Tunisian President Kais Saied decided on Friday to extend the state of emergency imposed across the country for one month.

"Saied decided to extend the state of emergency in the entire territory of the republic for one month, starting from January 1, 2023 until January 30, 2023," said the official gazette Journal of the Republic of Tunisia (JORT).

The state of emergency in Tunisia was first declared on November 24, 2015, following a bloody bomb attack on a bus of the presidential guards, which killed 12 agents.

30 Dec 2022; MEMO: The Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT) yesterday announced that it "will present an initiative to save the country from collapse in cooperation with the components of civil society, away from political tensions."

This came in a speech by Noureddine Taboubi, the secretary-general of the UGTT, when he said: "We will not accept chaos or the collapse of the country, we are not against parties that build political life and compete over programmes and options."

TUNIS, Dec 28 (NNN-TAP) – Tunisia foiled eleven attempts by illegal migrants, to cross the Mediterranean towards the Italian coast, National Guard Spokesman, Houcemeddine Jbabli, said, yesterday.

A total of 216 illegal migrants, including 127 migrants of different nationalities, were intercepted late Monday night, by the coast guard units off Tunisian coasts, Jbabli said, in a statement.

More than 37,188 Tunisian illegal migrants have been intercepted this year, according to figures released by the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, yesterday.

26 Dec 2022; MEMO: Tunisia expects inflation to average 10.5% in 2023, up from 8.3% expected for 2022, as inflationary pressures continue to increase, economy minister Samir Saeed said on Monday.

The Tunisian government has no alternative to an agreement with the IMF, Saeed added, referring a $1.9 billion rescue package to help the country with its borrowing needs next year.

25 Dec 2022; MEMO: The Tunisian General Labor Union, the country's largest syndicate, has called for a halt to the current electoral process and to instead address issues the country is facing, Anadolu reports.

"If there is political maturity, we will stop this (electoral) path and talk about what will get the country out of the dilemmas in which it has fallen," the head of the syndicate, Noureddine Taboubi, told Radio Diwan FM.

24 Dec 2022; MEMO: Dozens of Tunisians protested on Friday to demand the release the former prime minister and vice-president of Ennahda Movement, Ali Laarayedh, four days after a judicial decision was issued to imprison him.

The protest was organised by Ennahda Movement in front of the Palace of Justice in the capital, Tunis, under the slogan "Release Laarayedh." Several of the movement's leaders, lawyers and jurists took part in the protest.