Tunisia's premier-designate vows to combat terrorism and corruption

Tunisia's former development minister Youssef Chahed, nominated to be the struggling country's new prime minister, has pledged that his government will combat terrorism and corruption. Last Wednesday, President Beji Caid Essebsi named Chahed, a local development minister in a cabinet that lost confidence in parliament last week, to form a national unity government to revitalise an economy battered by militant attacks.

"The government's priorities will focus on winning the battle against terrorism, the war on corruption and push forward economic growth," Chahed told reporters. "The government will be frank with the people from the beginning about the real financial and economic situation."

Chahed's nomination is subject to parliamentary approval. As prime minister, he is to replace Habib Essid, an independent technocrat who failed to survive a no-confidence vote in parliament over a week ago. Chahed, 41, is a member of Essebsi's secularist Nidaa Tounes Party. Chahed is originally an agricultural sciences specialist and a university professor.

In June, Essebsi called for the creation of a national unity government with the aim of expediting the country's economic reforms and grappling with a militant insurgency. Some opposition figures have objected to Chahed's pick for premiership.

"Chahed is not the right choice for the phase during which the country needs someone with experience in economy and politics so as to put an end to this critical stage," lawmaker Obada al-Kafi from the Tunisia Project Party said. "It could have been better to select an independent figure who has experience so as to avoid political and partisan polarisation," Abdessattar Ben Moussa, the head of the Tunisian Human Rights Association, one of Tunisia's National Dialogue Quartet that won last year's Nobel Peace Prize, told journalists.

Tunisia is widely seen as the sole democratic success story of the 2010-11 Arab Spring uprisings. However, the country has been in the grip of an economic slowdown resulting from the unrest that followed the 2011 ousting of long-time autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Earlier this year, Tunisia witnessed attacks on public and private property during protests against unemployment, the country's worst social unrest since the uprising that deposed Ben Ali. The protests first erupted in the western central province of Kasserine and soon spread to other areas including the capital, Tunis.

The North African country has seen a string of deadly attacks in recent months. Most of the attacks were claimed by the Islamic State extremist militia. The violence has taken a toll on tourism, a main source of Tunisia's income.    (dpa)

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