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Tunisia: Former Ennahda PM to contest presidency

February 13, 2019 at 10:08 am

Former Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali is to contest the Tunisian presidency and stand in the upcoming legislative elections.

Sources close to Jebali revealed that he is preparing to participate in the legislative elections, supporting those electoral lists which share the same intellectual and political visions as him.Speaking to Arabi21 on condition of anonymity, the sources said that “Jebali’s political team advised him to participate in the parliamentary elections in order to win the support of the legislative institution to his reformist tendencies”.

The sources added that “after deep quarrels, Jebali and his political team were eventually convinced about the importance of the legislative institution in a parliamentary system, which grants great powers to a government that comes as a result of alliances between the largest parliamentary blocs in parliament”.

They continued: “The presence of a parliamentary bloc close to the President’s tendencies supports his reform policies in the areas which revolve around the presidency role.”

Jebali served as Prime Minister of Tunisia between 2011 and 2013 in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution, which sparked the Arab Spring. He will compete against his former Ennahda party leader, Rached Ghannouchi, in the country’s upcoming elections slated for the end of this year.

READ: Why are 75% of Tunisian youth reluctant to participate in 2019 elections?