TUNIS, July 31 – Tunisian Prime Minister Ali Larayedh (photo) has called general elections for Dec 17 amid long-running protests that demanded the ouster of the Islamist-led transitional government, the state TV reported.
Larayedh stressed that his government is not clinging to power but rather fulfilling its duty, the report said.
The prime minister’s announcement came four days after the assassination of a prominent opposition figure, Mohamed Brahmi, a strong opponent against the ruling Ennahdha in the Constitutional Assembly.
Since the assassination, thousands of people have marched in the streets, calling for the resignation of the government.
Before that, Tunisia had long been witnessing calls to dissolve the Constitutional Assembly, which the opposition parties see as being controlled by the Islamist Ennahdha.
Ali Larayedh urged Tunisians not to opt for adventurism and uncertainty, slamming the opposition’s opportunism and saying the government will stay until the people turn against it.
It a televised speech, he praised Tunisians for not following what he termed as “anarchists” who “want to take the country toward the unknown.” He said so after the country’s opposition and main labor union UGTT called for the resignation of the government and the dissolution of the country’s 217-member Constituent Assembly, whom they consider as having exceeded its term and lost its legitimacy.
They also blame the police’s handling of the protests and the violence perpetrated against a number of opposition representatives who had joined the protesters on Sunday.
A sit-in, which begun Saturday after the funeral of Mohamed Brahmi, a 58-year-old secular opposition politician who was killed in Tunis on Thursday, is still underway.
Some 72 opposition and independent representatives have temporarily withdrawn from the assembly, threatening to block its work. The assembly’s proceedings come to a halt if one-third of the representatives (73) quit.
Larayedh said that the Constituent Assembly will end its work on Oct 23 as soon as it endorses the new constitution.
He said the opposition does not represent the whole people, and that the government will not hesitate to resort to a referendum on whether or not to dissolve the assembly and the government, should the Tunisian people request it.
Until then, the government “will continue its work,” he said.
In another development, eight Tunisian soldiers belonging to a counter-insurgency unit were killed by terrorists in Mountain Chaambi near the border with Algeria, Tunisian state TV reported Monday evening.
A number of others were injured and flown by helicopter to a local hospital in the town of Kasserine, the report said, adding that the authorities did not elaborate on the circumstances of the soldiers’ deaths.
Counter-insurgency operations have been ongoing for the past six months in the mountainous area where the soldiers were killed.
A number of soldiers and officers have died in landmine explosions in the area, but it is the first time that such a large number of casualties is caused in direct clashes with alleged al-Qaeda operatives hiding in the mountains.
The attack, which comes after the assassination on Thursday of Mohamed Brahmi, a prominent secular opposition politician, is set to further deepen the ongoing political crisis in the country.
– BERNAMA
