By Biodun Busari
Opposition parties and other disgruntled Tunisians staged a protest against the country’s economic crisis on Saturday.
The protesters registered their grievances against the president’s increasingly authoritarian idea, to mark 12 years since Tunisian protesters unleashed Arab Spring uprisings around the region.
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According to VOA, the protest was launched against the disastrous parliamentary elections last month in which just 11% of voters cast ballots.
The elections were meant to change and redesign a legislature that President Kais Saied dissolved in 2021. The second round has been set for January 29.
It was staged in the capital, Tunis as the North African nation is going through a major economic crisis, with inflation and joblessness on the rise.
Tunisians have been hit with soaring food prices and shortages of fuel and basic staples like sugar, vegetable oil and rice in recent months.
VOA said the head of the National Salvation Front, a coalition of five opposition parties including the popular Islamist opposition party Ennahdha, Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, said tens of thousands of Tunisians took part in the protest march on the Habib Bourguiba avenue, the main artery of the capital and a key site for the revolution.
The Interior Ministry called on all groups authorised to organise demonstrations to respect the stipulated route and timing and ensure that there was no violence.
The ministry also urged protesters to respect restrictions and not to provoke clashes with security forces.
On January 14, 2011, then-President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali was forced out of power, transforming the country into a budding democracy that inspired the Arab Spring. Ben Ali died in 2019.
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