Tunisian PM heeds protesters' calls to quit

TUNISIAN PRIME minister Mohammed Ghannouchi resigned yesterday, acceding to a key demand of protesters in the hope of halting worsening violence.

“My resignation will provide a better atmosphere for the new era,” he said in a speech on state television. Three people have been killed since last Friday in confrontations between police and demonstrators protesting against Mr Ghannouchi’s cabinet.

Mr Ghannouchi was replaced as interim prime minister by Beji Caid Sebsi, who served as foreign minister under Tunisia’s first post-independence leader, Habib Bourguiba. He is charged with preparing for free elections due to take place in early July.

Shortly after the resignation announcement, security forces reportedly fired into the air in the capital, Tunis, to disperse youths who were throwing stones and smashing windows.

Mr Ghannouchi’s resignation has been a key demand of a section of the protest movement that led to the removal of former president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in mid-January. They accused the prime minister – a technocrat who served in the same post under Ben Ali since 1999 – of being too close to the deposed president.

Mr Ghannouchi had already resigned from Ben Ali’s RCD party and pledged to step down from cabinet after the elections, but that had failed to stop increasing numbers taking to the streets. In the biggest of several rallies against the interim cabinet, about 100,000 protesters marched down the capital’s main avenue on Friday shouting anti-government slogans. Three people died in violent clashes on Saturday, with dozens of protesters and members of the security forces injured.