Tunisia’s moderate Islamist Ennahda party has chosen Habib Jemli to become the next prime minister, party spokesman Imed Khemiri said on Friday. Ennahda came first in last month’s parliamentary elections, reported Reuters.
President Kais Saied will officially ask Jemli to form a new government later on Friday. Jemli has two months’ time to build a governing coalition out of a deeply fractured Parliament in which Ennahda, as the largest party, took only a quarter of the seats in last month’s election. If he fails, Saied can nominate another prime minister.
In a video posted on the presidency’s Facebook page on Friday, Jemli said cabinet members will be chosen on “their competence and integrity, regardless of their political affiliation.”
“Efficiency and integrity will be the basis for choosing the members of the government, whatever their affiliations without exclusion to any party,” Jemli said.
Jemli worked as a junior minister in the first Ennahda-led government in 2011 after the long-time ruler Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali fall to a pro-democracy uprising. The 60-year-old describes himself as an independent and was nominated by Ennahdha after the party came out top in legislative polls last month.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the Parliament selected Rached Ghannouchi from the Ennahda party as its speaker after the Heart of Tunisia party supported him, paving the way for a possible coalition government between them.
Notably, any new government will require the support of at least two other parties to command even the minimum parliamentary majority of 109 seats needed to pass legislation.
Last month, President Saied gave his approval to the replacement of the foreign and defence ministers after consultation with Prime Minister Youssef Chahed. Karim Jamoussi, the justice minister, replaced Jhinaoui as acting foreign minister, while Sabri Bachtobji replaced Zbidi as acting defence minister.
