Tunisia: PM to Dissolve Gov’t Ahead of Fresh Polls
By Staff Writer
TUNIS---Tunisia’s Islamist Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali has declared to dissolve current country’s government and form a new non-partisan cabinet ahead of fresh elections, following Wednesday’s assassination of opposition leader Chokri Belaid.
His announcement of the dissolution comes as deadly protests continue to rock the northern Africa country, sparked by the broad daylight assassination of the vocal secular leftist politician, prominent for his opposition of the ruling Islamist Ennahda party.
"I have decided to form a government of competent nationals without political affiliation, which will have a mandate limited to managing the affairs of the country until elections are held in the shortest possible time," said Jebali during his televised national address on late Wednesday.
Belaid’s family has accused Ennahda Party and particularly its leader Rachid Ghannouchi for being responsible for the murder of the 48-year-old leader of the Party of Democratic Patriots.
“I accuse Ennahda and the [Ennahda] party leader [Rachid] Ghannouchi personally of assassinating my husband,” said Belaid’s wife. “I hold the interior minister equally responsible.”
Leader of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, Nejib Chebbi has also blamed the Interior Minister Ali Laraydeh for Belaid’s murder, demanding for his sacking over claims that he knew Belaid was threatened and did nothing.
PM Jebali has distanced the party with the killing, which he described as “a political assassination and an assassination of the Tunisian revolution.”
The slain leader had on Tuesday warned of Ennahda creating militias to terrorise citizens and drag the country back to violence, following earlier claims of attacks on his supporters.
One policeman was killed the violent protests where demonstrators built barricades outside the Interior Minister’s offices in the capital, Tunis. Similar violent protest have been witnessed in other towns with protesters mostly targeting Ennahda party offices, some of which have been set on fire or looted.
Tunisia is home to the popular Arab uprising that saw veteran dictatorial leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali ousted in violent protest sparked in the town of Sidi Bouzid early 2011 following mounting oppression and high cost of living.
Belaid’s funeral service is expected to be held on Friday after the weekly prayers. Four opposition groups from his Popular Front coalition have announced they would withdraw from the national assembly.
Demonstrators built barricades in central Tunis outside the Interior Ministry and clashed with police, while four opposition groups that are part of Belaid's Popular Front coalition announced that they would withdraw from the national assembly.
The violent scenes triggered by Belaid's murder, in which one policeman was killed, were reminiscent of the uprising that ousted veteran dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali just over two years ago.
Beleid’s supporters flooded the streets of Tunis and other cities, including Sidi Bouzid, birthplace of the 2011 revolution, where tear gas was fired as about 200 people tried to storm the police headquarters.
Protesters torched the Ennahda office near Sidi Bouzid, ransacked another in Gafsa and set fire to a party office in the north-eastern town of Kef.
In Kasserine, on the border with Algeria, hundreds of people calling for "vengeance" took to the streets.
Belaid, whose funeral will be on Friday after the main weekly prayers, was a populist known for his iconic smile and black moustache.
A lawyer who spoke with the working class accent of north-western Tunisia, he defended human rights, was jailed under Ben Ali, and was a member of executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's legal defence team.
Ghannouchi, the founder of the Ennahda movement, said the killing was "cowardly" and that is was the result of a “settling of scores”. He also said that the killers intended to create "a bloodbath - but they won't succeed.”
Prime Minister Jebali, a senior figure in the Ennahda movement, told Tunisian radio on Wednesday morning that his party had nothing to do with the assassination, which he described as “a political assassination and an assassination of the Tunisian revolution.”
Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki, a centrist, deplored the killing in an impassioned speech at the European Parliament.
"This odious assassination of a political leader who I knew well and who was my friend... is a threat, it is a letter sent that will not be received," he said, insisting the murder would not plunge Tunisia into violence.
Tunisia's prime minister has pledged to form a government of technocrats and to call fresh elections following the assassination of secular opposition leader Chokri Belaid in broad daylight Wednesday.
Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, a leading member of the Islamist Ennahda party, said in a televised address late on Wednesday that he would form a new non-political administration ahead of fresh elections. He did not say when these elections would take place.
"I have decided to form a government of competent nationals without political affiliation, which will have a mandate limited to managing the affairs of the country until elections are held in the shortest possible time," he said.
The killing of the popular leftist politician, who was a vocal opponent of Ennahda’s rule, sparked deadly protests across the country and attacks on the ruling party's offices.
Demonstrators built barricades in central Tunis outside the Interior Ministry and clashed with police, while four opposition groups that are part of Belaid's Popular Front coalition announced that they would withdraw from the national assembly.