São Paulo – Tunisia’s new prime minister, Habib Essid, has announced his cabinet this Friday (23rd). The announcement comes nearly three months after the parliamentary elections, held in October, and won by political party Nidaa Tounes (“The Call of Tunisia").
According to government news agency Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP), Essid said his administration will belong to “all Tunisians.” The cabinet will have 24 ministers, including three women, a secretary general and 14 secretaries of state, six of which are also women. According to the African news agency Panapress, this is the most numerous cabinet since the country gained its independence, in 1956.
Panapress added that six of the positions will be retained by Nidaa Tounes members. Three of the ministers are affiliated with the Free Patriotic Union (FPU), the third most voted party in the October elections. Ennahda (“Renaissance”), a religiously oriented party, was the second most voted in the parliamentary elections.
Some of the positions will be held by people not affiliated with any political party, according to Panapress. Essid said his cabinet brings together people with administrative backgrounds, technicians, politicians, and civil society members, according to TAP. Panapress reports that many of the newly appointed officials will be in government for the first time, and few are known to the general public.
Essid emphasized that the government is committed with the fulfillment of the goals of the revolution that ended the Zine El Abdine Ben Ali’s regime in 2011, with the freedom, dignity, the establishment of the democratic process, and with ensuring the benefits of the socioeconomic development for all parts of society and regions of the country, according to TAP.
Also according to Panapress, the names for the new cabinet were submitted, before being announced, to president Béji Caïd Essebi, Nidaa Tounes’ leader who was elected for office in December.
Click on the link below to see the list of names for the cabinet (in French):
http://www.tap.info.tn/fr/index.php/tap-services/41074-annonce-de-la-composition-du-gouvernement-habib-essid
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani and Gabriel Pomerancblum
