Kais Saeed will never return Tunisia to Democracy.. But democratic forces can.

President Kais has just announced the indefinite closing of parliament. Using his unlimited legal powers that he grabbed for himself on the July 25th coup, president Kais has full legislative, judicial and executive powers, announcing the closure of parliament for a month, renewable indefinitely, is a clear indication that president Kais will not return to democracy.

The only legal entity that can check president Kais and his government is parliament, while parliament is shut president Kais can consolidate more powers, appoint more loyalists, and continue to purge all state offices from those who do and if the international pressure becomes too great, he can within the month arrest enough MPs to make sure that parliament cannot sit hence taking away immunity from all MPs.

If democratic forces do not act, and ideally act together in unison, to reopen parliament before the 30 day closure it maybe too late for Tunisia to function as a democracy again, while Kais and his appointees are at the helm of the state. Kais is not only consolidating power via appointments only, but he is also seeking to increase his popularity, by arresting and prosecuting as many of his political opponents as possible in the name of a war on corruption, and possibly a war on terror.

Having absolute legal powers isn’t enough, for kais, for while there is some resistance by state institution to be run in such a dictatorial fashion, with every day that he replaces or appoints a loyalist, Tunisia’s state becomes less of a republic and more of Kais’s personal fiefdom. Kais needs to be popular and unopposed so that he may enact his vision of Tunisia.

Once the Tunisian state is full of officials personally loyal to Kais, the danger becomes that the republic governed by laws even under dictatorship, may become governed by decree, challenging the very existence of the republic.