Tunisia ... await the announcement of the Prime Minister and finance ministers on the list of candidates

Khamis bin Brik-Tunisia

Tunisian public opinion is awaiting with the end of President Qais Said's constitutional deadline today, Monday, to choose a figure who will lead the consultations to form a government that has not seen the light since the legislative elections last October.

Up to this point, there has been no official announcement from the Presidency on the timing of revealing the name of this character. However, Chapter 89 of the Constitution stipulates that the period of consultations between the President and the parties take ten days after the government has not received the recommendation of Parliament.

The government of Habib al-Jamali, who was assigned by the winning Renaissance movement in the legislative elections, did not win the confidence of the absolute majority in parliament (109 votes) ten days ago, which means that the president's announcement of the name of the character will be today, Monday, with the end of the consultation period with the parties.

Outstanding names
Tunisian President Qais Saeed rejected a late invitation from German Chancellor Angela Merkel to participate in the Berlin conference on Libya on Sunday because of his involvement in studying parties' nominations to choose a new prime minister, as well as his meetings with some candidates.

On Saturday, Saeed met with three candidates whose names are considered the most widely discussed among the party nominations. They are the former finance ministers, Fadel Abdel Kafi, Hakim bin Hamouda and Elias Fakhfakh. But Al Jazeera Net learned that the President was unable to meet two other names who were in Safar, the former Minister of Energy of the Troika government, Manji Marzouk, and the Minister of Trade in the former regime, Ridha bin Misbah.

Eight parties and parliamentary blocs in Parliament nominated about 30 figures for the position of prime minister, but their most prominent nominations centered around former finance ministers, which suggested that the next prime minister would be from economic competencies, which created a divergence in the reactions of observers.

The name of the former finance minister, Fadel Abdel-Kafi, was at the top of the list of candidates. According to the blocs supporting him in parliament, he has 104 votes, which is less than the required majority, whereas the former finance minister Hakim bin Hamouda was behind him with the lowest number of votes, but with a broader party consensus.

There is talk in the political circles that President Qais Saeed will choose a person with the most compatibility from a mini list that includes, in addition to these two names, each of the former regime's trade minister Reza bin Misbah and the former finance minister and leader of the party, Elias Fakhfakh.

Difficult forecast
However, Al-Nahdha member deputy Osama Al-Sagheer tells Al-Jazeera Net that Chapter 89 of the constitution did not obligate the president to choose a person from the Party and Party Nominations Department, and that he might reshuffle the cards with a proposal from a person from outside her and be the party’s consensus

From his point of view, it is difficult to predict the name of the next prime minister given the convergence of the fortunes of the proposed personalities in terms of economic efficiency, recalling that this anticipation and waiting were similar to the moments that preceded the announcement of the unknown sweetheart.

Mohamed Al Hamedi, Deputy Secretary-General of the Democratic Movement for Al-Jazeera, said that it is difficult to predict the choice of the president, who will not reduce his role in calculating the number of seats each candidate will have, but will search for the stage figure according to his options and the legitimacy that he has.

Al-Hamidi believes that the Tunisian president must choose a political figure who has a composure to make difficult decisions, noting that some candidates are economists who are overwhelmed by liberal tendencies, which may not serve the interests of the weak classes and bankrupt government institutions.

Parties disavow
However, the president of the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, Abd al-Rahman al-Hadhili, expected the president to choose a figure from the three most frequently mentioned candidates mentioned above, not ruling out that former Finance Minister Hakim bin Hamouda would have the president's confidence to form a government.

But he ruled out that the candidate names with economic orientations would have no vision to review the development model because of their liberal tendency, assuring Al-Jazeera Net that the next prime minister will face difficult challenges due to the exacerbation of unemployment, poverty and the absence of development in the deprived areas.

As for the political analyst, Abdul Majeed Al-Abdali, he says that the president must choose a political figure from the winning parties to lead the country and assume its responsibility in front of the voters, considering that the parties' choice of independent economic figures "shirks responsibility."

On the chances of the candidates, he tells Al-Jazeera Net that it is difficult to predict what will happen, while criticizing the nomination of economic figures that he believes are unable to draw the policies of the state and resolve crises vigorously. "No economist can solve a political crisis," he says.