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| Africa North |
| Old regime's Essid named to form new Tunisia govt |
| 2015-01-06 |
| Ex-Interior Minister Habib Essid, who held a number of posts under Tunisia’s ousted regime, has been tasked with forming a government as prime minister designate, he told reporters Monday. Essid, a top Interior Ministry civil servant under toppled dictator Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, made the announcement after a meeting with Beji Caid Essebsi who last month won Tunisia’s first free presidential election. “I had the honor of being received today by the president who tasked me with forming the new government,” Essid said at the presidential palace. “Consultations with (political) parties and civil society will begin,” he added, without giving a date for the launch of talks. The prime minister designate has a month — renewable once — to form a cabinet and win parliamentary approval for his line-up. His name was put forward by Essebsi’s Nidaa Tounes party which won October parliamentary elections securing 86 of the 217 seats. Essid, 65, held government positions without ever being minister under Ben Ali’s iron-fisted regime but returned after Tunisia’s 2011 revolution. |
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