Tunisia installs former dissident as president

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Tunisia installs former dissident as president

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Tunisia installs as its new president a former dissident who was imprisoned and then exiled.

13 December,2011 01:19 pm

Tunisia installed as its new president a former dissident who was imprisoned and then exiled for opposing former President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, a new landmark in the countrys post-revolutionary transition to democracy.Members of the constitutional assembly, Tunisias interim parliament, voted to elect Moncef Marzouki as president, thesecond most powerful role after the prime minister.Marzouki, 66, is respected by many Tunisians for his implacable opposition to the autocratic Ben Ali. As president,he will be a secularist counterweight to the moderate Islamist party which is now Tunisias dominant political force.Salim bin Humaidan, spokesman for the Congress for Republic Party said there was a consensus within the constitutional assembly to elect Marzouki.Tunisia became the birth-place of the Arab Spring uprisings in January when protests forced Ben Ali, in power formore than 23 years, to flee to Saudi Arabia. That inspired revolutions in Egypt and Libya, as well as unrest in other Middle Eastern states.Marzouki, who was elected with 153 of the 202 votes cast, will serve for a year until the constitution is re-written andnew elections are held.About 40 opposition members of the assembly cast blank ballots in protest at a vote they said was a charade to mask the fact that real power was now held by the Islamists.I didnt present my candidacy. For the democratic opposition block we have decided not to present any candidate for the same considerations that led us not to vote on the temporary law about public authorities, said the secretary general of the Tajdid Movement, Ahmed Ibrahim.Mohamed Brahmi, secretary general for the Chaab Movement said he objected to the process of the presidential selection.