Tunisian government agrees to resignation plan with opposition

Tunisia’s ruling moderate Islamic Ennahda Party has agreed to resign in order to put an end to the ongoing political deadlock in the North African country.

The powerful General Union of Workers (UGT), which has been negotiating a deal between the government and the opposition, says the government of Prime Minister Ali Laa-rayedh has accepted to step down.

Further talks to form a caretaker government and set a date for elections could begin next week. The negotiations were launched in a bid to end a deadlock between the Ennahada-led government and the opposition.

“The dialogue will start on Monday or Tuesday,” Ennahdha representative, Lotfi Zitoun, said, adding “Ennahdha has accepted the plan without conditions to get the country out of the political crisis.”

The opposition has been staging large demonstrations, demanding the resignation of the government, a new administration of technocrats, and new elections.

The developments come after the murder of Mohamed Brahmi on July 25, the second such assassination in six months, created a crisis in Tunisia with the National Salvation Front blaming the government for failing to maintain security and tolerating the militants it blamed for the killing.

Brahmi, who was a member of the Popular Front Party, held a seat at the Constituent Assembly tasked with writing a new constitution following the 2011 revolution.

The assassination of leftist opposition figure, Chokri Belaid, outside his home in the capital in February 2013, also triggered violent demonstrations across the country, with the headquarters of the Ennahda Party being attacked in more than a dozen cities.

The Tunisian Interior Minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou said in late July that the assassinations were the work of a member of the extremist Salafist movement.

The country has also seen numerous clashes between the authorities and extremist groups over the past few months.

Tunisia, the birthplace of pro-democracy protests across North Africa and the Middle East, is struggling with a democratic changeover after the overthrow of its Western-backed dictator, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, in 2011.

The moderate ruling party Ennahda was elected following the ouster of Ben Ali in January 2011.