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Tunisia PM to Run for President Following Essebsi's Death

Reuters

   TUNIS, TUNISIA - Tunisia's liberal prime minister, Youssef Chahed, will
   run for president in an early election expected on Sept. 15, his Tahaya
   Tounes party said on Wednesday, making him one of the likely
   frontrunners to succeed Beji Caid Essebsi, who died last week.

   Essebsi, 92, a secularist who helped guide the transition to democracy
   after a 2011 revolution, was buried at a state funeral on Saturday. The
   speaker of parliament has been sworn in as interim president to lead
   the country to a new election.

   Slim Azzabi, secretary-general of the Tahya Tounes party, said it would
   nominate Chahed as its presidential candidate.

   The party, which split off from Essebsi's party this year, is now the
   biggest liberal group in Tunisia's parliament. It governs in coalition
   with the moderate Islamist Ennahda Party and a smaller liberal group.

   Ennahda has not yet named its candidate for the presidency.

   Other candidates who have announced their intention to stand include
   liberal former Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa, and Moncef Marzouki, who
   served as interim president for three years after autocrat Zine El
   Abidine Ben Ali was toppled, until Essebsi was chosen in the first
   democratic presidential election in 2014.

   Tunisia was the birthplace of the "Arab Spring" protests that swept the
   Middle East and North Africa in 2011, and the only country where those
   revolts were followed by a peaceful transition to democracy.
   Nevertheless it remains mired in a severe economic crisis that has
   fuelled social discontent.

   A presidential election due in November this year will now be held two
   months early following the death of Essebsi.

   Tunisia's president mainly has authority over foreign and defence
   policy, governing alongside a prime minister chosen by parliament who
   has authority over domestic affairs.