TUNIS: Tunisia’s new parliament on Monday elected its speaker in its first session, but the main opposition coalition said it would not recognize its legitimacy after an election with a turnout of just 11 percent.
President Kais Saied shut down the previous elected parliament in July 2021, ruling by decree in a move that opposition parties have called a coup.
Independent journalists were not allowed to attend the opening session of parliament for the first time since Tunisia’s 2011 revolution. Officials told reporters only state TV and radio and the state news agency were allowed to cover the event.
Ibrahim Bouderbala, the former president of the Bar Association was elected as speaker. Bouderbala is a staunch supporter of President Kais Saied.
The new parliament, elected in polls in December and January, operates under a constitution that Saied wrote last year. It will have very little power compared with the body it replaces.
Saied has said his actions were legal and needed to save Tunisia from years of crisis.
As most parties boycotted the election, and candidates were listed on ballot papers without party affiliation, most of the new parliament members are political independents.
The National Salvation Front, the main opposition coalition, in a statement on Monday it would not recognize the parliament.
Saleh Mbarki, who chaired the opening session, said: “Our duties as people’s representatives is to work in partnership with the executive authority for the unity of the state.”
The National Salvation Front, the main opposition coalition, in a statement on Monday it would not recognize the parliament.
Journalists protested their exclusion from the session, gathering at the entrance to parliament and chanting: “Lawmakers it is a shame. The press is under siege.”
“It is a scandal and a serious violation of press freedom. It harms the image of Tunisia and attacks the citizen’s right to a free and pluralistic media,” Amira Mohamed, vice president of the Journalists Syndicate, told Reuters.
New Tunisian parliament elects its speaker in its first session
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New Tunisian parliament elects its speaker in its first session
Palestinians attempt to use Gaza’s Rafah Border crossing amidst delays
- The Rafah Crossing opened to a few Palestinians in each direction last week, after Israel retrieved the body of the last hostage held in Gaza and several American officials visited Israel to press for the opening
CAIRO: Palestinians on both sides of the crossing between Gaza and Egypt, which opened last week for the first time since 2024, were making their way to the border on Sunday in hopes of crossing, one of the main requirements for the US-backed ceasefire. The opening comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to travel to Washington this week, though the major subject of discussion will be Iran, his office said.
The Rafah Crossing opened to a few Palestinians in each direction last week, after Israel retrieved the body of the last hostage held in Gaza and several American officials visited Israel to press for the opening. Over the first four days of the crossing’s opening, just 36 Palestinians requiring medical care were allowed to leave for Egypt, plus 62 companions, according to United Nations data.
Palestinian officials say nearly 20,000 people in Gaza are seeking to leave for medical care that they say is not available in the war-shattered territory. The few who have succeeded in crossing described delays and allegations of mistreatment by Israeli forces and other groups involved in the crossing, including and an Israeli-backed Palestinian armed group, Abu Shabab.
A group of Palestinian patients and wounded gathered Sunday morning in the courtyard of a Red Crescent hospital in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis, before making their way to the Rafah crossing with Egypt for treatment abroad, family members told The Associated Press.
Amjad Abu Jedian, who was injured in the war, was scheduled to leave Gaza for medical treatment on the first day of the crossing’s reopening, but only five patients were allowed to travel that day, his mother, Raja Abu Jedian, said. Abu Jedian was shot by an Israeli sniper while he was building traditional bathrooms in the central Bureij refugee camp in July 2024, she said.
On Saturday, his family received a call from the World Health Organization notifying them that he is included in the group that will travel on Sunday, she said.
“We want them to take care of the patients (during their evacuation),” she said. “We want the Israeli military not to burden them.”
The Israeli defense branch that oversees the operation of the crossing did not immediately confirm the opening.
A group of Palestinians also arrived Sunday morning at the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing border to return to the Gaza Strip, Egypt’s state-run Al-Qahera News satellite television reported.
Palestinians who returned to Gaza in the first few days of the crossing’s operation described hours of delays and invasive searches by Israeli authorities and an Israeli-backed Palestinian armed group, Abu Shabab. A European Union mission and Palestinian officials run the border crossing, and Israel has its screening facility some distance away.
The crossing was reopened on Feb. 2 as part of a fragile ceasefire deal that stopped the war between Israel and Hamas. Amid confusion around the reopening, the Rafah crossing was closed Friday and Saturday.
The Rafah crossing, an essential lifeline for Palestinians in Gaza, was the only crossing not controlled by Israel prior to the war. Israel seized the Palestinian side of Rafah in May 2024, though traffic through the crossing was heavily restricted even before that.
Restrictions negotiated by Israeli, Egyptian, Palestinian and international officials meant that only 50 people would be allowed to return to Gaza each day and 50 medical patients — along with two companions for each — would be allowed to leave, but far fewer people than expected have crossed in both directions.
