Tunisia Parliament Elects Speaker from Nidaa Tounes

Local Editor

Tunisia's parliament on Thursday elected veteran politician Mohammed Ennaceur, 80, of the majority Nidaa Tounes party as house speaker.

Ennaceur, the sole candidate, won 174 votes from the 214 MPs in attendance, Ali Ben Salem, the doyen of the house who chaired the session, announced.

The vote had initially been expected on Tuesday during the newly elected parliament's inaugural session, but was delayed for consultations on a consensus candidate.

Ennaceur is the deputy leader of Nidaa Tounes, which won a landmark legislative election in October nearly four years after the overthrow of long-time strongman Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

Ennaceur held several ministerial posts under former President Habib Bourguiba, Tunisia's "father of independence" from 1957 to 1987.

Nidaa Tounes head Beji Caid Essebsi, 88, is the frontrunner in a presidential election runoff due to be contested by the end of this month.
The party won 86 seats in the October parliamentary polls, beating moderate Islamist movement al-Nahda into second place with 69 seats.

Under the North African country's electoral system, the party with the most votes has a mandate to form a coalition government.

Nidaa Tounes has said it will not form a government before the presidential runoff, in which Essebsi will face incumbent Moncef Marzouki after neither candidate secured an absolute majority in a November 23 first round.

Establishing a new parliament is considered to be one of the last steps in Tunisia's transition to full democracy, after the ouster of Ben Ali in 2011.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team