Tunisia: Prime minister-designate announces government formation

New government will be put to parliament for a vote on Thursday, where it must win majority support.

Tunisia prime minister
Jemli struggled to bring rival parties together during the coalition talks but says all parties will support the new government [Fethi Belaid/AFP]

Tunisia’s prime minister-designate has announced the formation of a cabinet of independent technocrats, more than a month after he was picked to head a government focused on reviving the economy.

Habib Jemli, an agricultural engineer by training and a nominee of the moderate Islamist Ennahdha party, said the new government comprised independent Tunisians but stopped short of disclosing their names.

“I have depended [in forming the cabinet] on elements of competence and independence from political parties,” said the 60-year-old Jemli after a meeting with Tunisian President Kais Saied on Wednesday

Tunisia’s official news agency TAP said Jemli had presented the proposed government to Saied, who will ask parliament to set a session for holding a confidence vote on the lineup.

The government must be endorsed by a majority of parliament’s 217 members.

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Ennahdha emerged as the country’s strongest political force in Tunisia’s October parliamentary elections, winning 52 seats in the fractured parliament.

Anger at public services that are seen as worse than under Tunisia’s pre-revolution President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who died in exile in September, has undermined the trust of some Tunisians in its political establishment.

Saied, an independent who won the presidential election in October, then formally tasked Jemli with building a coalition able to command a majority in parliament.

Jemli struggled to bring rival parties together during the coalition talks but said on Wednesday that all parties would support the new government “one way or another”, without giving specifics.

Source: News Agencies