Tunisian Prime Minister Resigns After Failing To Form New Government

Outgoing Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali

Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali has resigned after failing to win the support of his ruling Islamist Ennahda party for an interim government of technocrats.

Jebali said on February 19 that he was keeping a promise he made to resign if he failed to push through a nonpartisan cabinet.

Jebali, who represents the moderate wing of Ennahda, had vowed to steer Tunisia from a crisis sparked by the killing of secularist politician and opposition leader Chokri Belaid on February 6.

Jebali had been prime minister since December 2011.

Belaid's murder sparked violent protests across the country.

Since the revolution that toppled dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali two years ago, Tunisia has been marred by violence, blamed on radical Salafists, and social unrest over the government's failure to improve living standards.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP