By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Another minister in Tunisia’s caretaker government, Industry and Technology Minister Afif Chelbi, resigned Monday, a day after the prime minister bowed out following a wave of deadly protests.
Mohammad Ghannouchi quit Sunday after 11 years as prime minister. He is succeeded by Beji Caid Essebsi, 84, who held numerous posts under the country’s founding president, Habib Bourghiba, who was ousted in a palace coup in 1987.

The interim government is laying the groundwork for presidential and parliamentary elections expected in about five months.
Interim authorities say “agitators” are trying to derail Tunisia’s moves toward democracy after the protests brought down President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali sparked uprisings across the Arab world.

However, Tunisia’s replacement of its prime minister after weeks of protests failed to quell criticism of the interim government as the opposition Monday pressed on with demands for more change.
Protesters have demanded the establishment of a parliamentary system.
Meanwhile, the interim government has pledged elections by mid-July.

The influential Tunisian General Labor Union, which played a key part in the toppling of the previous regime, criticized the rapid appointment of Essebsi as the new prime minister in the absence of consultations.
“It was a surprise,” union deputy secretary general Ali Ben Romdhane said.

“How can we secure the agreements that are wished for to bring Tunisia out of a difficult situation when the president does not give at least 24 hours for consultations about the designation of a prime minister?” he asked.

Leading opposition figure Rached Ghannouchi, president of the influential Islamist movement Ennahdha, said “the government of Ben Ali has gone, it must be replaced by one of the people.”

“The next government must include the Council for the Protection of the Revolution,” he said.
Tunis saw no new major demonstrations Monday but the city center was still tense after violence erupted Friday and continued through the weekend, when security forces fired warning shots and tear gas to disperse rampaging protesters.

The Interior Ministry said five people had been killed in the clashes. Sixteen security officers were also wounded when stones and other objects were hurled at them, it said in a statement.
Military reinforcements were deployed close to the Interior Ministry Monday as shops and pavement cafes in the center of the capital remained closed in the morning.

Witnesses said shops in the main commercial center had been looted and a supermarket had been set on fire over the weekend.
Ghannouchi “finishes his run with a gesture of clarity that honors him by recognizing that he is not the man for the situation,” the government’s La Presse newspaper said Monday.

But the independent Tunis-hebdo warned that “the way things are going, there is a big risk of the transition being compromised, put in danger by the blatant slowness and clumsiness of a government anchored in old reflexes and by a cabal of unreliable politicians who are riding the hobby horse of the revolution less to serve than to serve themselves.” – AP, AFP