Tunisian police used pepper spray to disperse protesters against President Kais Saied's planned July referendum on Saturday, June 4, nearly a year after he seized wide-ranging powers in what opponents decry as a coup.
The police blocked the protesters, who numbered around 100, as they attempted to reach the headquarters of the electoral commission, whose chief Saied replaced last month in a further extension of his control of state institutions. Some at the protest in Tunis, organized by five small political parties, held up placards reading "the president's commission = fraud commission."
"The police... sprayed gas in our faces and attacked us," said Hamma Hammami, head of the Tunisian Workers' Party. Saied on July 25 sacked the government and suspended parliament, which he later dissolved in moves that sparked fears for the only democracy to have emerged from the Arab Spring uprisings.
He also seized control of the judiciary, and on Thursday summarily sacked 57 judges, accusing them of corruption and other crimes. On Saturday the Tunisian bar association announced a national strike in "all criminal, administrative, and financial courts" for a renewable period of a week, starting Monday.
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