68. The Court recalls that the power of the constituent bodies to legislate or
execute derives from universal suffrage. In the present case, the 27 January
2014 Constitution was drafted and adopted by a Constituent National
Assembly comprising two hundred and seventeen (217) members elected
by direct universal suffrage on 23 October 2011. It comprised twenty-eight
(28) political parties15 and sixteen (16) independent members. By voting in
the election of 23 October 2011, the Tunisian people exercised their
sovereign right by delegating to the members of the Constituent National
Assembly the power to draft the new Constitution.
69. On this point, the Court finds that the people participated indirectly in the
drafting of the 27 January 2014 Constitution.
70. With regard to the people’s participation in the adoption and promulgation
of the 27 January 2014 Constitution, the Applicant submits that it is the 1959
Constitution that should have governed the transfer of power and the
holding of a referendum in the event of a constitutional amendment. To this
end, the Court notes that the 27 January 2014 Constitution is not an
amendment to the 1959 Constitution but a completely new Constitution.
Based on this finding, the Court holds that the provisions of the 1959
Constitution relating to the holding of a referendum in the event of a
constitutional amendment did not apply in the present case. At the time, the
1959 Constitution was no longer in force insofar as it had been suspended
and replaced by the Constituent Law of 16 December 2011.
71. The Court notes that, according to the tenets of constitutional law, the
procedures for adopting and promulgating a new Constitution are spelt out
15
The groups are : Mouvement Ennahda (90) ; Congrès pour la République (30) ; Forum Démocratique
pour le Travail et les Libertés (21) ; Al Aridha populaire pour la liberté, la justice et le développement
(19); Parti Démocrate Progressiste (17) ; Pôle Démocratique Moderniste (5) ; Parti l'Initiative (5) ; Afek
Tounes (4) ; Al badil thawri PCOT (3) ; Mouvement des Démocrates Socialistes (2) ; Mouvement des
Patriotes Démocrates (2) ; Mouvement du Peuple Haraket Achaab (2) ; L'Indépendant (2) ;Union
Patriotique Libre (1) ; Parti du Néo-Destour (1 ) ; Parti de la Nation, Culturel et Unioniste (1) ; Mouvement
du Peuple Unioniste Démocrate (1) ; Parti de la Lutte Progressiste (1) ; Parti de l'Equité et de l'Egalité
(1) ; Parti Démocrate-social de la Nation (1) ; Parti Libéral Maghrébin (1) ; Fidélité aux Martyrs (1) ; Liste
l'Espoir (1) ; Voix Libre (1) ; Parti de la Lutte Sociale (1) ; Liste pour le Front National Tunisien (1) ; Liste
de la justice (1) ; liste de la fidélité (1).
19