Tunisia parliament votes to sack PM Habib Essid

Tunisia's parliament has passed a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Habib Essid, effectively dismissing the government of the US-trained economist.

A total of 188 MPs voted to sack Mr Essid, with only three supporting him.

Mr Essid, who has been in office less than two years, has faced criticism for what his opponents say is his failure to push through economic reforms.

President Beji Caid Essebsi last month called for a national unity government to break months of economic turmoil.

Image copyrightEPA

Image captionMore than a third of young people in Tunisia are without work

Unemployment has worsened since the 2011 revolution, when President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was ousted. More than a third of young people in Tunisia are without work.

Tunisia's uprising was the first of the Arab Spring, and often hailed as the most successful with the country now functioning as a parliamentary democracy.

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Analysis: BBC's Rana Jawad in Tunis

The confidence vote came after a month of wrangling over the fate of the prime minister, following pressure on him from the country's president to resign. Mr Essid refused to step down, citing respect for the constitutional process and instead called on the Tunisian parliament to decide his fate.

In the end, an overwhelming majority of MPs voted to oust him from office. Most lawmakers accused him of failing to deliver on economic reforms needed to ease the country's high unemployment rates.

In June, the Tunisian president proposed the formation of a new unity government, arguing that the country needed a leadership that could carry out bold reforms.

But some observers believe that the vote is also a consequence of the prime minister's detachment from party politics. Mr Essid recently accused leading parties of trying to pressure him into making changes to the cabinet, which he says he refused to comply with. It is not clear who will succeed him at this time, but parliament will start negotiations over the matter on Monday.

BBC Report

Tunisia beach attack: State of emergency declared

Tunisia has declared a state of emergency, just over a week after 38 tourists, mainly Britons, died in an attack in the resort city of Sousse.

The state of emergency gives security forces more powers and limits the right of public assembly.
Authorities had already tightened security in the wake of the attack on 26 June, deploying more than 1,400 armed officers at hotels and beaches.

Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi is due to address the nation later.

Security forces were criticised for not responding more quickly to the attack in Sousse, when a gunman opened fire on tourists on a beach and in a hotel before being shot dead by police.

Those killed included 30 Britons.

The gunman has been identified as student Seifeddine Rezgui, who authorities say had trained in Libya.

Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid conceded in a BBC interview on Friday that the slow response of the police was a key problem.

He said Rezgui had probably trained with the Ansar al-Sharia group, though Islamic State (IS) earlier said it was behind the attack.

Eight people have been arrested on suspicion of collaborating with Rezgui, and the government says it has uncovered the network behind the Sousse attack.

Authorities have also pledged to close some 80 mosques that were operating outside government control and accused of spreading extremism.

Analysts say Tunisia has been put at risk by the chaotic situation in neighbouring Libya, and by the threat posed by Tunisians who have gone to fight in Syria and Iraq returning home.

The last time Tunisia declared a state of emergency was in 2011, in the uprising which overthrew President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. It was lifted in March 2014.

Officials are expected to pass a counter-terrorism bill that has been in parliament since early 2014 in the coming weeks.

The Sousse attack represented the second blow in three months to Tunisia's tourism industry, an important sector for the country.

In March, two gunmen killed 22 people at the renowned Bardo museum in Tunisia's capital, Tunis.

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