Tunisia’s Ghannouchi resumes duties after recovering from Covid-19

Tunisia’s Ennahda announced on Friday that head of the movement and Parliament Speaker Rached Ghannouchi has recovered from Covid-19 and is now in good health, which would enable him to return to work.

Riyadh Chouaibi, Ghannouchi’s political advisor, told Anadolu Agency that Ennahda leader “left the military hospital on Thursday, after he finally recovered from Covid-19 and he is now in good health.”

During the past few days, rumours about Ghannouchi’s deteriorating health condition, after contracting the coronavirus, have been widely circulated on social media platforms, while bloggers said that he was no longer able to perform his duties as leader of Ennahda and Speaker of Parliament.

Mondher Lounisi, a member of the Ennahda’s executive office, said in a post attached to a photo of Ghannouchi on his Facebook account that the latter “is in good health and had breakfast at his home.”

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Regarding the demand submitted by MPs to fill the vacancy created at the level Parliament presidency, Chouaibi said that “this is a moral and political fall that has nothing to do with the law,” adding that “Ghannouchi is like any Tunisian citizen who was infected with Covid-19, and the matter did not require more than a week of hospitalisation, as he is in good health now and in the process of carrying out his duties.”

In a letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives posted on social media, three MPs from the People’s Movement (15 out of 217 seats) demanded Ennahda party to submit to Parliament a detailed medical report issued by Ghannouchi’s doctors on his health condition.

In their letter, deputies, Haikal Al-Makki, Laila Al-Haddad and Mohsen Al-Arfaoui warned that the first Deputy Parliament Speaker Samira Chaouachi did not provide information about Ghannouchi’s health, noting that the Parliament’s law allows the announcement of a vacancy in the position.

Chouaibi commented on the issue saying that “exploiting this humanitarian circumstance to score political points is nothing but a sign that the planners of this initiative have no political morals, and this request has no legal basis.”

He continued: “It would have been better for those (officials) to do their part in alleviating the health crisis that the country is experiencing, rather than falling into such absurdities.”

Article 50 of the Tunisian Parliament’s internal code states that in the event that the Speaker cannot perform his duties, his first deputy shall replace him and in case of the latter’s absence the mission shall be fulfilled by the second deputy.

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Article 52 of internal code also stipulates that “in the event of the final vacancy of the position of the Speaker of Parliament, his deputy shall exercise all his powers until the election of a new Speaker within a maximum deadline of 15 days from the date of the vacancy.”

On 13 July, Ghannouchi announced on Facebook that he contracted the virus, confirming that he would “continue to carry out his duties remotely in accordance with the exceptional measures, while taking all necessary precautions and respecting the health protocols.”

It is noteworthy that Ghannouchi received the second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine last April, at the general vaccination centre in Ariana governorate, north of the capital, Tunis, after receiving the first dose two weeks earlier.