Tunisia to announce cabinet today

TUNIS

Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali said he will submit the lineup of his new cabinet today, the first freely elected government since the north African country’s popular uprising. 

“The final makeup of the government will be presented on Monday afternoon to President Moncef Marzouki before being submitted for approval by the constituent assembly on Wednesday or Thursday,” Jebali said, quoted by the official TAP news agency.

Jebali is number two of the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, which won elections for the new constituent assembly in October, the first since the Arab Spring revolution that toppled veteran president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali in January. Thousands of Tunisians rallied Dec. 17 to commemorate a young fruitseller’s desperate gesture a year ago which unleashed the pioneering revolution of the Arab Spring. Marzouki joined the crowds in the town of Sidi Bouzid, Agence France-Presse reported. 

A monument representing Bouazizi’s street stall surrounded by wheelchairs symbolising ousted Arab dictators was unveiled to applause, while union leaders, rights activists and members of the new constituent assembly took to the microphone.