A former Tunisian interior minister has been nominated as prime minister to form a new government after an agreement among political parties in the newly elected parliament, congress speaker Mohamed Nacer said yesterday.
The nominee, Habib Essid, worked in the government of autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali but was also interior minister after the 2011 revolution that ended Ben Ali’s one-party rule and forced him into exile.
His nomination follows the election of Beji Caid Essebsi, also a former Ben Ali minister, as president. Essebi’s secular Nidaa Tounes party holds the most seats in the new parliament.
“We have chosen Essid because he is independent and has experience in the areas of security and the economy,” Nacer told reporters outside the congressional palace.
He will now appoint a government that must then be approved by a vote in the parliament. Tunisia has been praised as a model for its transition to democracy and its new constitution and free elections held since the 2011 uprising.
