Tunisian president Beji Caid Essebsi has proposed Youssef Chahed as a new candidate to replace the north African country’s ousted prime minister Habib Essid.
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Chahed served as minister for local affairs in the government that fell over the weekend in a no-confidence vote.
The party was later merged with the centrist Nidaa Tounes party, which has led the government since 2014.
Tunisian lawmakers voted Saturday to dismiss Essid in a no-confidence ballot, clearing the way for a new government that Essebsi wants to push through economic reforms. Chahed will have to implement the guidelines contained in the Carthage Accord, a document in which the representatives from nine political parties, trade unions and entrepreneurs set the timeline for the creation of a new national unity governments and its priorities for intervention.
He now has 30 days to come up with a ministerial team.
And the chosen new prime minister, Mr. Chahed, has stepped into the political spotlight with progressive bullet-points in hand.
Essid’s government had faced growing criticism for failing to tackle repeated jihadist attacks and an economic crisis. “He wanted to defy the president one last time before leaving”, as he knew beforehand that the parliament would not vote for him.
“Today, we enter into a new stage that demands efforts and exceptional sacrifices and boldness to find out-of-the-box solution to the nation’s problems”, Chahed told reporters.
The North African nation wedged between Algeria and Libya, suffered two major attacks previous year – at a beach resort and the well-known Bardo Museum – that killed around 60 people, mainly tourists.
Local media and party sources have also said the two had family ties.
Tunisia has been plagued by violence since the 2011 uprising that ousted the country’s long-time dictator, Zine el Abidine Ben Ali. Nidaa Tounes and the Islamist Ennahda party, both part of the ruling coalition, hold the majority of seats.
Jilani Hamami, the head of the Popular Left Front, said: “The single characteristic used to select the head of the next government is belonging to the family [of Essebsi]”.
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While the change of power comes from dissatisfaction within the country, the way that it has been handled thus far comes from a democratic process, constitutional law expert Nawfel Saied tells the Associated Press.
