Tunisian Parliament Speaker Rached Ghannouchi, the leader of the Islamist Ennahda movement, scraped through a motion of no-confidence on Thursday. Only 133 lawmakers out of a total of 217 in the parliament attended the session. A total of 97 lawmakers voted in the secret ballot for the motion and 30 voted against it. A no-confidence motion to remove the speaker from his post in the Tunisian parliament requires an absolute majority vote of 109 votes from a total of 217 lawmakers. The Tunisian parliament had devoted its session today to vote on the motion submitted by dozens of lawmakers, led by the lawmakers from the liberal Free Constitutional Party, to withdraw confidence from Ghannouchi but the dispute over the method of voting sparked tensions at the start of the session. The chairperson of the session was forced to adjourn this morning session during secret balloting on the confidence withdrawal motion as mayhem broke out in parliament between the opposition and Ennahda lawmakers. The session and secret balloting resumed shortly after. The lawmakers from smaller opposition parties and recently resigned ruling coalition parties also supported withdrawing confidence from the leader of the Islamic Renaissance Movement, the largest bloc in parliament, charging that he violated rules of procedure and failed to run the sessions in a partial manner. — Agencies
