Tunisian leader Hamadi Jebali resigns

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/19/tunisian-leader-hamadi-jebali-resigns

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Tunisia's prime minister, Hamadi Jebali, resigned on Tuesday after his attempt to end a political stand-off by forming a government of technocrats failed.

"I vowed that if my initiative did not succeed I would resign and … I have already done so," Jebali told a news conference after meeting the president, Moncef Marzouki.

Jebali had proposed a cabinet of apolitical technocrats to quell the turmoil caused by the assassination on 6 February of the secular opposition politician Chokri Belaid. The shooting dead of Belaïd, a left-leaning lawyer and outspoken critic of the government, shocked Tunisia and left the government reeling. It prompted mass protests aimed in part at the ruling moderate Islamist party Ennahda, to which Jebali belongs.

No one claimed responsibility for the killing, but it deepened the misgivings of secularists who believe Jebali's government has failed to deal firmly enough with religious extremists threatening the country's stability.

The crisis has disrupted efforts to revitalise an economy hit hard by the disorder that followed the overthrow in 2011 of the veteran strongman Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, who was president from 1987 up to that date.

Jebali proposed forming a cabinet of apolitical technocrats to restore calm and take Tunisia onwards to elections, but he did not consult his own party or its secular coalition partners.

He had threatened to quit if the proposal failed. But his party scuppered the plan by rejecting the idea of a technocratic government.

Announcing his resignation on Tuesday Jebali said he would not lead another government without assurances about the timing of fresh elections and a new constitution.