Tunisia cabinet holds first session

Transitional government convenes while hundreds of protesters rally outside the headquarters of the former ruling party.



Tunisia's newly appointed cabinet has opened its first session amid an outcry over its inclusion of members of the regime of the ousted president.
All ministers of the transitional government were present at the inaugural session on Thursday except five who resigned earlier this week over unhappiness that it featured members of the former ruling party, the Constitutional Democratic Rally
(RCD).



The government is tasked with preparing "free and democratic" presidential and parliamentary elections within six months, following the departure of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the former president who fled into exile in Saudi Arabia last Friday after weeks of anti-government protests.
The main items on the meeting's agenda were the separation of the state from the once all-powerful RCD, and a general amnesty for political prisoners.
Earlier on Thursday, all of the eight ministers in the new government who had been members of RCD quit the party, without giving up their cabinet posts.
The move followed pressure from the opposition. It came partly in response to the resignations of four ministers, three of them belonging to the main UGTT trade union, who refused to sit in a unity government with RCD members.
Persistent protesters
Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters gathered in the capital Tunis outside the RCD headquarters demanding that ministers associated with the rule of Ben Ali leave the government.
The protesters refused to move back even when police fired shots from behind a metal fence.
Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from the scene, said: "this government is being undermined by ongoing protests. We just heard some gunshots.
"This is a strong signal to the government." 

He said the government offices were bustling with activity as high-level officials tried to convince members of the powerful workers' unions to rejoin the cabinet.
"It will be the union's presence that can win this government the public support that it needs," our correspondent said.


"People are saying that it is not a revolt, but it is a revolution and therefore the outcome should be brand new faces."
One of the protesters, who gave his name as Aymen, said: "We are here, we are not going to move until the RCD falls. We will come every hour and every day."
For the first time since the fall of Ben Ali, there were also protests in other towns across Tunisia.
Responding to the ministers' departure from RCD, the party announced that its central committee had been dissolved, as many of the ministers were also committee members. The party itself would continue to operate, state television said.
Also on Thursday, the minister of administrative development stepped down.
"I am stepping down for the higher interests of the country in this delicate situation to try to bring the country out of crisis and ensure a democratic transition," Zouheir M'Dhaffar, a prominent member of the former ruling party and one of the closest to Bin Ali, was quoted as saying by the official TAP news agency.
Under the constitution, parliamentary and presidential elections should take place in less than two months.

Source:

Al Jazeera and agencies