Tunisia Parliament Approves Coalition Govt Thursday Feb 05,2015

Tunisia's parliament on Thursday Feb 05,2015 has approved a coalition government made up of secularists and moderate Islamists.

Prime Minister Habib Essid said the government would focus on combating terrorism and improving the economy

 

MPs voted for the new government by an overwhelming margin .Of 204 lawmakers present, the vote was a comfortable 166-30, with 8 abstentions

The cabinet headed by Prime Minister Habib Essid, which includes members of his secularist Nidaa Tounes party and Ennahda, was approved on Thursday by 166 members of the 217-seat parliament.

Tunisia is seen as a model for compromise between rival political groups in North Africa.

The Islamist Ennahda party conceded defeat to the secular Nidaa Tounes party in the elections.

Ennahda was given the employment ministry and other junior posts in the Nidaa Tounes-dominated government.

It had threatened to vote against the government if it was not given cabinet posts. Smaller parties were also included in the cabinet.

"The motto of this government will be work, then work... and nothing other than work," Prime Minister Habib Essid told MPs.

Prime Minister Habib Essid, who served in the Ben Ali government overthrown by the uprising, said the government would seek to "expedite the passage of an anti-terrorist law"

Monday's cabinet allotted six ministerial posts to Nidaa Tounes members, including that of foreign affairs. The portfolios of interior, defence and justice were assigned to independents.
      
The Free Patriotic Union party -- headed by football club magnate and former presidential hopeful Slim Riahi -- and the liberal Afek Tounes will also be represented

Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid delivers a speech during a parliamentary session to present his new governement at the parliament in Tunis 

Tunisia's President Beji Caid Essebsi (R) receives the letter of designation from newly-nominated Prime Minister Habib Essid in Tunis January 5, 2015

 

Tunisia's nominated Prime Minister Habib Essid (L) presents his cabinet to Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi on January 23, 2015 in Carthage Palace in Tunis

Note

This is the first government to be formed after the North African country's first free presidential and parliamentary elections last year.
 
It follows the ouster of longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011 in a revolution that spread to many parts of the Arab world.


The anti-Islamist Nidaa Tounes of President Beji Caid Essebsi won the largest number of seats in October 2014 General Election, with Ennahda coming second.
     
Nida Tounes did not secure a majority and Ennahda, which holds 69 of parliament's 217 seats, had rejected a cabinet in which it was not represented.