Islamist Jebali to be Tunisian PM

Hamadi Jebali, of the Islamist Ennahda party, will be Tunisia's next prime minister, under a deal struck between the country's three main parties, a senior politician said Friday. Abdelwaheb Matar, a senior official in the Congress for the Republic party, said the parties had also agreed that his grouping's veteran rights activist and opposition politician Moncef Marzouki would become Tunisia's president. Tunisians last month held historic democratic elections nine months after the January ouster of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. They were the first polls staged as a result of the Arab Spring uprisings. Tunisians were voting for a 217-strong constituent assembly to draw up a new constitution and appoint the caretaker government until the country calls a general election. Ennahda won the most seats, with 89. It put forward Jebali for prime minister as it went into talks with the Congress for the Republic, which won 29 seats, and centre-right party Ettakatol, which won 21, over who should occupy the senior political posts. The three parties also agreed that Mustapha Ben Jaafar of Ettakatol would occupy the third key post, president of the constituent assembly, said Matar. But the deal is subject to the approval of the assembly itself, which holds its first meeting on Tuesday, he added. The deal was also confirmed by a leading figure inside Ettakatol.