Tunisia’s prime minister announced a national unity government on January 17, allowing opposition into the country’s leadership for the first time in a bid to quell simmering unrest following the ouster of President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali amid huge street protests. Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi, a longtime ally of Ben Ali, and several top ministers retained their posts in the shake-up. Ghannouchi also announced that political prisoners would be freed, among an array of measures aimed at loosening up a political system that for decades was effectively under one-party rule. Ghannouchi said the current ministers of defence, interior and foreign affairs would keep their posts.
Three opposition figures, including Nejib Chebbi, a founder of the opposition PDP party, will take up posts in the government. Until new presidential elections are held, the country is being run by interim President Fouad Mebazaa, former speaker of the lower house of Parliament, also a veteran of Tunisia’s ruling party. Ghannouchi said all restrictions on the Tunisian League for the Defence of Human Rights would be lifted. The government would create three new state commissions to study political reform, investigate corruption and bribery, and examine abuses during the recent upheaval.