Pressure growing on Ghannouchi to step down as parliament speaker
Motion to withdraw confidence from Ghannouchi exceeds 73 signatures
Four parliamentary blocs besides independents sign motion to withdraw confidence from Tunisia’s parliament speaker.
Monday 13/07/2020
Pressure growing on Ghannouchi to step down as parliament speaker
LONDON - Democratic Bloc MP Haykel Mekki said Monday that the motion to withdraw confidence from Tunisia’s parliament speaker Rached Ghannouchi exceeded the 73 signatures required from several political blocs.
Mekki said that members of the Democratic Bloc from the Democratic Current and the Popular Movement parties signed the motion.
The Reform and Tahya Tounes besides the National Bloc and several independents also signed the motion, he added.
Four parliamentary blocs agreed Sunday to initiate the procedures necessary to withdraw confidence from parliament speaker as an opposition to the violations they said he committed.
Ghannouchi, who is the leader of the Islamist Ennahdha party, has faced a huge criticism in Tunisia for siding with Libya’s Government of National Accord led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj.
Last May, Ghannouchi congratulated Sarraj’s Turkish-backed forces and militias on capturing al-Watiya military airbase from military commander Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army.
His statement caused uproar in Tunisian parliament as several MPs accused Ghannouchi of meddling in foreign affairs and international conflicts.
But Ghannouchi said that his communication with Sarraj did not exceed the Tunisian diplomacy rules.