Tunisia’s En-Nahda Names Interior Minister Candidate for PM

Tunisian ruling party, En-Nahda named on Friday Interior Minister Ali Larayedh as its candidate to replace Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, a day after suspects in the assassination of opposition leader Chockri Belaid were arrested.

“He is the official candidate of Ennahda for prime minister,” said Mouadh Ghannouchi, son of Ennahda chief Rached Ghannouchi.
The party leader and Larayedh, 57, will now meet with President Moncef Marzouki, who is expected to task the interior minister with forming a new government.

Earlier, Radio Mosaique FM and Shems-FM, as well as an Ennahda source, said Larayedh was chosen by the party’s Shura Council overnight.

Larayedh, who was imprisoned and tortured under the regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, has been interior minister since the dictator was ousted in 2011.

Jebali resigned on Tuesday after his plan to form a non-partisan government, announced in the wake of public outrage over the assassination of leftist politician and government critic Chokri Belaid, was rejected by his own party.

GOV’T ARRESTS SUSPECTS IN BELAID MURDER

Earlier on Thursday, suspects in the murder of Belaid have been arrested in Tunisia according to a press release issued by Laareyd.

Laareyd did not disclose any details of the investigation but said that currently there is no certainty that those arrested committed the crime.

Belaid was shot outside his home in the capital of Tunis on February 6 which further aggravated the situation in the country where a confrontation between Islamists and secular forces has been raging for several months.