Breaking News :Tunisian interior minister to form new government

 

News on Top Tunisian interior minister Ali Larayedh has been tasked with forming a new government after prime minister Hamadi Jebali resigned amid a major political crisis.

President Moncef Marzouki made the announcement after meeting with Mr Larayedh, who had earlier been put forward as the ruling party's candidate for prime minister.
"He is the official candidate of Ennahda for prime minister," said Mouadh Ghannouchi, son of Ennahda chief Rached Ghannouchi.
On Wednesday the presidency said the Islamists were entitled to choose the new premier because they have the most seats in the national assembly.
Mr Larayedh will have 15 days to put together a new government team, which will then be submitted to parliament for approval.
Ennahda, which was already leading a coalition, has promised to build as broadly based a government as possible.
With its 89 MPs, it should have no difficulty getting the 109 votes needed for a majority.
Mr Larayedh, who was imprisoned and tortured under the regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, has been interior minister since the dictator was ousted in 2011.
A moderate member of the party, he is seen as a man of dialogue.
The other prospective candidates were said to have been agriculture minister Mohamed Ben Salem, justice minister Noureddine Bhiri and health minister Abdellatif Mekki.
Mr Jebali resigned on Tuesday after his plan to form a non-partisan government, announced in the wake of public outrage over the murder of leftist politician and government critic Chokri Belaid, was rejected by
Ennahda, his own party.
The assassination plunged Tunisia into its worst political crisis since Ben Ali's ouster, enflaming political tensions and laying bare Ennahda's divisions between moderates and hardliners.
Coincidentally, it was Mr Larayedh who told reporters on Friday that there had been arrests in the murder inquiry, but he did not say how many.
"The investigation has not led yet to identify the killer, those behind the murder and its motives," he said.
Mr Belaid's shooting death outside his home did little to ease the political misgivings of liberals and secularists, who believe Ennahda is failing to rein in religious extremists threatening stability.
Mr Belaid's family accused Ennahda of orchestrating his murder, a charge it strongly denied.