During the past two days, the draft agreement of the Qatar Fund for Development with Tunisia sparked a great deal of controversy before it was presented to the plenary session of Parliament, which further complicates the political crisis in the country. Opposition deputies accused the parliamentary majority, led by the Ennahda movement, of selling Tunisia to Qatar by insisting on passing an agreement that is considered “suspicious” and affecting national sovereignty.

This controversy led the Democratic bloc in Parliament, consisting of 38 deputies from the People’s Movement, the Democratic Current and independent deputies, to approve a boycott of voting on all government bills submitted to Parliament. On Tuesday, head of the bloc, Nooman il-Ish, said during a press conference, that the boycott came in protest of Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi’s refusal to invite the Assembly of People’s Representatives to attend the accountability and dialogue sessions, in light of a stifling health, economic and social crisis.

The bloc also announced a boycott of the plenary sessions devoted to voting on bills submitted by the government, until the prime minister responds to appearing before the representatives for accountability, and respects the oversight role of the Assembly of People’s Representatives. It also announced a challenge to the bills that will be voted on in a clear violation of the exceptional measures, which have nothing to do with the livelihood of Tunisians, nor to confront the Covid pandemic, or the laws necessary for the functioning of the wheels of the state.

The bloc held the political belt of Hichem Mechichi’s government responsible for what it described as absurdity, arbitrariness, and forceful passage to pass laws and agreements to serve its narrow interests.

In this context, the representative of the Democratic Bloc, Nabil Al-Hajji, considered that the Assembly of the Representatives of the People has turned into a tool that exercises formal democracy and not an authority and that Parliament has become a tool in the hands of the Ennahda movement and its allies using it to control the country.

Al-Hajji also stated that the position of the Democratic Bloc comes as a reaction to the prime minister’s evasion of accountability in Parliament, whose duties include monitoring the executive authority.

Member of Parliament  Nabil Al-Hajji also stated that Al-Mashishi did not respond to requests for hearings by the Security and Defense Committees and the Affairs of the Armed Forces, despite his assumption of the duties of the Ministry of Interior. Also, despite the seriousness of the health, economic and social situation, the Prime Minister did not respond to written requests for hearing and accountability, as flimsy excuses are presented each time. In addition, the Democratic Bloc sent a written correspondence a month ago to question the Prime Minister about the recent security incidents, but the latter did not show any interest in that correspondence.

The Assembly of the Representatives of the People chose to work on passing bills within the framework of exceptional measures to combat the Corona epidemic, and that was two months ago.

The Assembly of the Representatives of the People decided to form a crisis cell consisting of the 13 members of the parliament’s office, the heads of the blocs, and the head of the Health Committee, which will be in charge of programming the plenary sessions after considering projects and approving them by voting.

This procedure excludes draft laws related to the Corona pandemic, projects related to mobilizing state resources, and projects related to the proper functioning of state agencies.

However, the parliament did not respect the role of the crisis cell in this regard, and Nabil Al-Hajji said in this context that “the House of People’s Representatives in recent days deliberated draft laws related to the agreement with Qatar, specifically the project related to the Qatar Development Fund, and a project related to the division of electoral districts and others… These projects were not passed to the crisis cell for approval, and they were discussed in the plenary session, given that remote voting guarantees the largest number of votes, something that the Democratic bloc did not accept.

Al-Hajji added that the postponement of the point related to the deliberation of the president’s failure to seal the draft law on the Constitutional Court took place against the backdrop of a meeting between President Kais Saied and Parliament Speaker Rached Ghannouchi, which confirms that the Council has become a tool for the personal and political battle between Saied and Ghannouchi, while the main role of the Assembly of People’s Representatives is the oversight role.

That is why the Democratic Bloc decided to boycott voting on government projects so that the representatives would not be just a voting machine that serves the play of the Ennahda movement and its allies.

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