Tunisian parties propose to the president two candidates to head the government

Tunisian parties submitted their candidates to head the government to  President Qais Said, who has until Monday to announce the personality that will cost him to form a government three months after the parliamentary elections.

The government of Habib al-Jamali, nominated by the “Ennahda” party, the first in arranging parliamentary blocs (54 seats out of a total of 217), was unable to gain the confidence of deputies last Friday.

Accordingly, the President of the country assigns a personality after consultations with political parties and blocs within a period of ten days, in accordance with Chapter 89 of the Constitution.

The next government will face the challenge of obtaining confidence from a dispersed parliamentary bloc, which was spawned by the October 6 elections.

The majority of the proposed names are personalities with economic and financial backgrounds, who have no party affiliations.

The “Renaissance” party nominated four names, including former Finance Minister Mohamed al-Fadil Abdel Kafi, the current Minister of Communication Technologies and Digital Economy Anwar Maarouf, and the recently resigned Minister of Major Economic Reform, Tawfiq Al-Rajhi.

As for the second largest bloc, the “Heart of Tunisia” party (38 seats), it submitted six names, including former finance ministers: Muhammad al-Fadil Abd al-Kafi, Hakim bin Hamouda and Ridha bin Misbah, as well as political opponents of the regime of former President Zine al-Abidine bin Ali Ahmad Najib al-Shabi.

The head of the party’s bloc, Hatem Al-Maliki, told France Presse that the selection of these “was made according to their economic backgrounds, their affiliation with the middle democratic family and their experience in the field of economics, who are unresolved and capable of establishing consensus among political families.”

The Democratic Movement (22 seats), in turn, stipulated that the Prime Minister-designate should be “without those who assumed governmental responsibilities before the 2011 revolution, and believed in the revolution of freedom and dignity.” The party confirmed in a statement on Friday that it did not object to former Finance Minister Elias Al-Fakhakh and former Energy and Mines Minister Al-Manji Marzouk.

Tunisian President Qais Saeid sent 38 letters to the political parties and coalitions represented in Parliament to provide his list of candidates with “written correspondence”, according to a statement by the Presidency of the Republic on Thursday.

And if the next government is not able to gain the confidence of Parliament until mid-March, then the Tunisian president can dissolve parliament and call for early parliamentary elections, according to Chapter 89 of the Tunisian Constitution.