Most photographs of Tunisian President Kais Saied on his official social media feed show him behind his desk with mouth open, lecturing a procession of subdued, deferential subordinates.
That top-down approach, in which Saied directs and everybody else follows, is what his critics fear will be enshrined as Tunisia's new political system through Monday's referendum in place of a flawed, but relatively open, democracy.
The constitution he announced last month creates a supreme role for the president, relegating both parliament and judiciary to functions of the state he will lead, rather than branches of power in their own right. They appeared to be hugely popular among Tunisians who were fed up with political bickering and economic malaise. Thousands took to the streets to celebrate and the president basked in a stated conviction that he represented the will of the people.His supporters have hailed him as an independent man of integrity standing up to elite forces whose bungling and corruption have condemned Tunisia to a decade of political paralysis and economic stagnation.
The powerful labour union is already mounting public sector strikes over economic reforms required for an IMF bailout and has also indicated it disapproves of his referendum. Tunisian politics is closely watched abroad because of the country's role in triggering the 2011 "Arab Spring" uprisings and its success as the sole democracy to emerge from them.
Upon his election in 2019 as an independent candidate, defeating a media mogul accused of corruption in a landslide second-round victory, he declared a new revolution.
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