Tunisians protest President Saied's latest power grab measure

Hundreds demonstrated in southern Tunisia on Sunday against President Kais Saied's decision to exclude political parties from key political reforms, including the drafting of a new constitution.

Opposition parties and figures took place in the demonstration in the Medinine governorate, including the "Citizens Against the Coup" movement and the "National Salvation Front".

Slogans chanted against the "police state" that has emerged since the president's power grab last year and spoken out against a referendum on a new constitution, measures viewed as destroying freedoms won in the 2011 Arab Spring.

Former minister Samir Dilou said opposition groups are calling for national dialogue to establish a salvation government to bring Tunisia "back on the path of democracy, away from autocracy".

On Friday, Saied named a law professor to head an advisory committee of legal and political science experts to draft the new constitution for a "new republic", excluding political parties from the process.

Since his power grab last year, which opponents call a coup, Saied’s rivals accuse him of taking further steps to consolidate his autocratic rule.

The president denies his opponents' accusations that he staged a coup to seize power, saying his intervention was legal and necessary to save Tunisia from years of political paralysis and economic stagnation at the hands of a "corrupt, self-serving" elite who had taken control of the government.