Tunisians are celebrating the fifth year of emergency rule and calling for Saied to go | Objections

Thousands of people have gathered in Tunis to demand the ‘fall of the regime’ five years after President Kais Saied suspended parliament.

Thousands of Tunisians have gathered in the capital to call for President Kais Saied to step down, criticizing the worsening quality of life, the backsliding of democracy and poor governance.

Crowds marched along Habib Bourguiba Street in central Tunis on Saturday as the country celebrated five years since Saied declared a state of emergency, suspending parliament and the aftermath. melting to rule by law.

It is the latest in a series of recent protests distractions on opposition, a financial problems and limits freedom of the press.

Saied’s critics accused him of abusing the emergency measures to reverse Tunisia’s democratic transition.

“We took to the streets today to hold the system of governance to account and to expose its failures, because it is our role as political and civil forces,” Wissam Sghaier, spokesperson for the Jomhouri opposition party, told Al Jazeera. “And to use a famous Tunisian saying: “We are not the borrowers of this country, we are the owners.

“If for these reasons they make charges against us and accuse us, then if our friends and colleagues are arrested today, prison is welcome,” Sghaier continued. “We are ready to pay the price.”

The marchers left the Republic Square and headed towards the Municipal Theater carrying flags and placards against the national program that Saied called “July 25th”.

Demonstrators called on Saied to “leave”, chanting “freedom, work and national dignity” and renewed calls for “the people want the fall of the government”.

The same words were heard at the beginning of the democratic revolution in Tunisia in 2011.

Many of the demonstrators carried placards and called for the release of political prisoners, who have filled Tunisia’s prisons since Saied seized emergency power.

The call for protests began with Nafas, a grassroots movement that brings together Tunisian opposition parties and independents opposed to Saied’s regime.

The spokesman of the Ennahdha party in Tunisia, Imed al-Khamiri, told Al Jazeera Arabic that the protests have expanded beyond the opposition parties and include many citizens who are not affected by the government’s management of economic affairs and public services.

Tunisia’s democratic transition began with the ousting of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011, after months of unrest. In the following years, Tunisia held its first free elections and enacted a new constitution guaranteeing political freedom.

Most of those gains have been reversed. Since assuming power and law, Saied has fired dozens of judges, exposed media coverage the government deemed false and arrested dissident officials.

One of the most prominent people in prison is Rached Ghannouchi, the 85-year-old former speaker of the parliament who played a key role in Tunisia’s reforms. He spent years in prison, and was sentenced in June life plus 30 years on charges of “terrorism”. He is said to be sick and ill He recently passed out from prison conditions.

Saied insists that what he is doing is aimed at fighting corruption and preventing chaos, denying that any rights or freedoms have been curtailed.