Islamist leader Jebali to be Tunisian PM

Islamist leader Jebali to be Tunisian PM

Hamadi Jebali of the Islamist Ennahda party was poised on Saturday to become Tunisia’s new Prime Minister under a deal struck by the country’s three main parties.

Under the agreement, to be announced on Monday, veteran rights activist and Opposition politician Moncef Marzouki would become president, according to Abdelwaheb Matar, a senior official in the Congress for the Republic party.

The Tunisian press on Saturday called it “the battle of Carthage between Marzouki and (Mustapha) Ben Jaafar” of Ettakatol, who in the end was named president of the constituent assembly, officials said.

The three parties also agreed that Ben Jaafar of Ettakatol would occupy the third key post, president of the constituent assembly, Matar said, noting that the deal is subject to the approval of the assembly itself on Tuesday.

Jebali, 63, an Islamist, spent more than 15 years in Ben Ali’s jails. His candidacy for the post of prime minister was announced by Ennahda a few days after the October 23 elections.

The horse trading followed Tunisia’s historic democratic elections on October 23, nine months after the January ouster of dictator Zine al Abidine Ben Ali. They were the first polls staged as a result of the Arab Spring uprisings.

Editorials have been calling for the new leaders to reach agreement and get to work as the country remains in crisis and the Assembly has not yet been reunited.“Now there has been an agreement, but the essentials still have to be defined, that is, the perogatives of each of them,” political analyst Salaheddine Jourchi said.