TUNIS: Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali resumed talks on Monday with political leaders aimed at forming a new government of technocrats, despite a fresh rebuff from his own ruling Islamist party Ennahda.
Complicating a political crisis that has engulfed Tunisia after the February 6 assassination of a left-wing politician, media reports said the leader of President Moncef Marzouki's Congress for the Republic (CPR) party had resigned.
Jebali, who is number two in Ennahda, is seeking to forge a consensus on his controversial proposal to form a non-partisan administration, designed to avert political turmoil, and has vowed to step down if his initiative is thwarted.
Ennahda's veteran leader Rached Ghannouchi and parliamentary speaker Mustapha Ben Jaafar, who heads the Islamists' coalition ally Ettakatol, arrived for the meeting in a Tunis suburb shortly after 1500 GMT, along with key opposition leaders.
But the head of Marzouki's CPR, Mohammed Abbou, was conspicuously absent amid media reports that he had resigned, and with another party official attending the talks.
Jebali came under fresh attack from his own party earlier on Monday.
The consultative council of Ennahda, which dominates the national assembly in which it holds 89 of 271 seats, said his proposed government of technocrats "does not meet the needs of the present time."
"We remain committed to the formation of a coalition government which derives its legitimacy from the October 23, 2011 elections."
Ennahda, which was repressed under ousted dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, won the 2011 polls and controls the key foreign, interior and justice ministries in the coalition cabinet.
But it is divided between moderates, among whom Jebali is the most prominent, and hardliners, represented by Ghannouchi, who are refusing to give up the key portfolios, insisting on Ennahda's electoral legitimacy.
Ghannouchi insisted that the premier should remain head of a coalition government of politicians and technocrats, after blasting his initiative at a large pro-Islamist rally on Saturday as a "coup against the elected government."
"Hamadi Jebali will not resign. He will remain the head of the government and secretary-general of the party," Ennahda's leader told Shems FM radio.
Jebali first proposed his initiative in the wake of public outrage over the murder in broad daylight of Chokri Belaid, a leftist opposition leader and fierce critic of the ruling Islamists.
After meeting the main party leaders on Friday, Jebali said talks on the new administration would continue, and scrapped a previous Saturday deadline for its formation, stoking fears that the political uncertainty could lead to new violence.
Belaid's family has accused Ennahda of orchestrating his killing, which enflamed simmering tensions between liberals and Islamists in the once proudly secular Muslim nation and sparked the worst political crisis since the 2011 revolution.
Belaid's murder came after months of failure by the ruling coalition to overhaul the government, and sparked bloody clashes between opposition supporters and police, as well as attacks on Ennahda offices.
On Monday, a statue erected in Belaid's honour was found vandalised and broken into pieces, prompting an angry response from his widow Besma Khalfaoui, who branded those responsible "inhuman."
The media reported on Monday that in addition to the CPR's Abbou resigning, several other MPs from the party were defecting.
Marzouki's secular, centre-left party has voiced opposition to Jebali's plans, but is riven with internal divisions and differences with its Islamist allies.
As well as the row over the new government, there is deadlock over the drafting of the constitution, with parliament divided over the nature of Tunisia's future political system 15 months after it was elected.
Since the revolution Tunisia has also been rocked by violence blamed on radical Salafists, and ongoing social unrest over the government's failure to improve poor living conditions.
-AFP/ac
Tunisia PM pushes cabinet plan despite new rebuff
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Tunisia PM pushes cabinet plan despite new rebuff
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