Former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki has resigned from the presidency of al-Irada Movement, which he formed in 2015, announced the movement’s political body.
The commission issued a statement saying it assigned Khaled Tarawli, head of the political body, as head of the party until elections are held.
The statement said the commission fully appreciates all the struggles and sacrifices Marzouki has made and all the intellectual, cognitive, and moral legacy he has left to the party's activists, supporters, and Tunisians.
Irada participated in the latest presidential and parliamentary elections, and Marzouki received only 2.97 percent of the presidential votes, thus, he was not qualified for the second round.
As for parliamentary elections, Irada did not win any parliamentary seats, which led the movement to move towards renewing its political leadership.
Marzouki had served as President of the Republic from 2011 to 2014 and ran the presidential elections against the late President Beji Caid Essebsi, but was defeated in the second round.
Irada’s political body maintained its structures and commissioned them to launch an in-depth phased program aimed at the comprehensive evaluation of the movement's performance and the causes of the resounding defeat in recent elections.
Meanwhile, a group of small Tunisian parties that won a number of parliamentary seats, announced they were joining the parties opposing the coalition government led by Ennahda Party.
Afek Tounes, formerly led by Yassine Brahim, announced it will not participate in the government after receiving Prime Minister-designate Habib Jamali’s invitation to join the new cabinet. It said it was not interested in quotas in the consultations held by the Ennahda party to form a government.
For his part, Sec-Gen of Democratic Patriots' Unified Party Ziad Lakhdhar said the party was not interested in joining the next government, and confirmed after a meeting Jamali, that it remained a political force seeking to realize the underachieved goals of the 2011 revolution.
Despite the difficulties hindering consultations on the formation of the next Tunisian government, Ennahda spokesman Imad al-Khamiri said that the meetings held by the movement's candidate Jamali were “useful” after the PM explained his priorities for the government.
Regarding Heart of Tunisia’s attempt to participate in the government, Khamiri said that Ennahda won the elections and was very clear in the promises it made to its constituency, asserting the movement was against including Heart of Tunisia in the governance.
“The prime minister must only prove his ability to negotiate,” he concluded.
