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Jan. 5, 2015 / 1:26 PM

Tunisia nominates new prime minister

Habib Essid, nominated Monday to serve as prime minister of Tunisia, will be responsible for forming a new government that must then be approved by parliamentary vote.

Habib Essid, pictured in 2011, was nominated on Jan. 5 to serve as Tunisia's next prime minister. CC/Wikimedia/Citizen59

Habib Essid, pictured in 2011, was nominated on Jan. 5 to serve as Tunisia's next prime minister. CC/Wikimedia/Citizen59

TUNIS, Tunisia, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- Habib Essid was nominated prime minister of Tunisia on Monday by the newly elected parliament.

The 65-year-old former interior minister was selected by Mohamed Ennaceur, speaker of the Assembly of People's Representatives, and Mihamed el Baccouche, secretary general of the majority secular Nidaa Tounes party.

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Essid is an independent with political experience in the ousted government of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and served in the transitional post-2011 revolution government. Although he was considered a compromise candidate, not all political parties welcomed his nomination.

Popular Front spokesman Hamma Hammami expressed concern during an interview with radio station Shems FM that Essid's nomination suggests the return of pre-revolution figures. The Democratic Current party voiced similar misgivings in a statement released Monday and also noted that Essid's nomination was not by consensus.

Essid will be responsible for forming a new government that must then be approved by parliamentary vote.

His nomination follows the inauguration last week of President Beji Caid Essebsi, Tunisia's first freely elected leader.

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