TUNIS
Tunisia's new president, Beji Caid Essebsi, resigned from his Nidaa Tounes Party on Wednesday, only hours after being sworn in by Tunisia's parliament.
In submitting his resignation, Essebsi said that maintaining the chairmanship of his party would conflict with his post as president, the Tunisian presidency said in a statement.
It added that Essebsi, 88, had met with top party leaders, including the parliament speaker, and had asked them to name a prime minister to lead the government, which, according to the constitution, should be formed by the party with the most seats in the assembly.
Nidaa Tounes won 86 of the 217 seats in Tunisia's parliament in October parliamentary polls.
Parliament Speaker and Nidaa Tounes Deputy Chairman Mohamed al-Nasser, meanwhile, said his party would name a new prime minister and abide by the deadlines set in this regard as laid out in the constitution, the presidency said.
Article 89 of the constitution calls for the president to ask the party with a majority of parliamentary seats – within one week of the announcement of final election results – to form a government.
The party should then present its cabinet lineup within one month, a period that can be renewed once if the party initially fails to form a government, according to Article 89 of the constitution.
Nevertheless, a member of Nidaa Tounes' political office told The Anadolu Agency earlier that his party would likely name a prime minister from outside the party.
Essebsi, who won 55.68 percent of the vote in Tunisia's recent presidential runoff, was sworn in as president on Wednesday.
He swore the oath of office in parliament to become the country's first democratically-elected president.
In 2011, Tunisia provided the first spark for a series of popular uprisings that shook the Arab world and which later came to be called the "Arab Spring."
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