Tunisia legal body says speaker is interim president

Tunisia

A picture taken on March 17, 2007 shows Tunisian Parliament Speaker Fouad Mebazaa addressing the opening session of the Euro-Mediterranean parliamentary assembly in Tunis. Tunisia's president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has been officially ousted from power, the country's Constitutional Council decided on January 15, 2011 and Fouad Mebazaa has been named interim president by the Council. Photo by AFP

TUNIS: Tunisias Constitutional Council announced that under the constitution the speaker of parliament, not the prime minister, should be the interim president, state television reported on Saturday.

Tunisian Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi said on Friday he was taking over as interim president because the incumbent, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, was temporarily unable to fulfill his duties.

The council, the countrys highest legal authority on constitutional issues, also said the constitution requires new presidential elections to be held no later than 60 days from now, state television reported.

The Constitutional Council announces that the post of president is definitively vacant so we should refer to article 57 of the constitution, which states that the speaker of parliament occupies the post of president temporarily and calls for elections within a period of between 45 and 60 days, Fathi Abd Ennather, president of the council said on state television.


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