Tunis: Tunisian Prime Minister-designate Habib Al Sid’s new cabinet faced rejection by parliament on Monday after another party said it would oppose his choice of ministers in a vote to ratify the country’s new government.
A rejection by parliament would be the first defeat for the secular party Nida Tunis since it won October legislative elections. President Beji Qaid Al Sebsi would then have to appoint a new premier to form a cabinet.
Tunisia’s politics have been dominated by negotiations and compromise deals between secular and Islamist leaders after the 2011 uprising that ousted autocrat Zain Al Abidine Bin Ali and brought free elections and a new constitution.
But the new Nida Tunis-led government will need strong backing from parliament as it prepares to crack down on Islamist militants and make sensitive cuts in public spending demanded by international lenders.
Al Sid last week selected ministers from Nida Tunis, the leading party in parliament, and other, smaller partners. No positions went to other major parties, including Islamists Al Nahda.
Al Nahda and leftist party Popular Front have already rejected his cabinet, and on Monday a third party, Afek Tunis, also said it would oppose Al Sid’s government in a vote to ratify his choices planned for Tuesday.
“We have decided to vote against Al Sid’s government because it is not a representative government, it’s not a government that includes all the parties that won in the elections,” Afek Tunis leader Rim Majoub said.
Delegates from Afek Tunis, who are nominal allies to Nida Tunis, had walked out of the negotiations last week to form the new cabinet.
In the 217-seat parliament, Nida Tunis holds 86 seats and has some backing from the liberal, secular UPL party, which has 16 seats. But without support from other parties or defectors, Al Sid would fall short of the 109-seat majority needed to ratify the cabinet.
Al Nahda holds 69 seats in the assembly, Popular Front 15 and Afek Tunis eight.
Al Nahda, which governed in the first Islamist-led government after the 2011 uprising, had said it was open to a unity government with Nida Tunis to improve stability.
Nida Tunis itself is a coalition of former Bin Ali officials, leftists and independents. But its hardliners were opposed to joining with Al Nahda, which they blame for unrest when the Islamists were in government after 2011.
