(ANSA) - TUNIS, JUN 04 - Several scuffles broke out this morning between the police and a hundred demonstrators who were protesting in Tunis against the referendum scheduled for July developed by President Kais Saied, almost a year after taking power in what opponents have defined a distant shot.
Police blocked protesters as they attempted to reach the headquarters of the electoral commission whose head was replaced by Saied last month in a further extension of his control over state institutions.
At the demonstration in Tunis, organized by 5 small political parties, some participants raised signs with the inscription 'the presidential commission = commission for fraud'.
"The police sprayed us with gas and attacked us," said Hamma Hammami, head of the Tunisian Workers' Party.
On July 25 last year, President Saied removed the government and suspended the Parliament, which he later dissolved in moves that sparked fears for the only democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring uprisings.
The referendum of next July 25 has been called "to decide on the new Constitution for a new Republic".
In addition to the political crisis, Tunisia is grappling with serious economic difficulties, including runaway inflation and very high unemployment.
Full of debt, the country is trying to obtain a new loan from the International Monetary Fund of at least four billion dollars.
(HANDLE).