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Tunisia PM-designate Proposes More Inclusive Cabinet


Tunisia's Prime Minister-designate Habib Essid speaks during a news conference in Tunis, Feb. 2, 2015.
Tunisia's Prime Minister-designate Habib Essid speaks during a news conference in Tunis, Feb. 2, 2015.

Tunisia's prime minister-designate presented a new coalition government on Monday to include more parties.

Habib Essid has included secularists, Islamists and smaller parties, after lawmakers rejected his first proposed cabinet last week as unrepresentative.

Included among the new ministers are representatives of the powerful Islamist Ennahda party, the secularist Nidaa Tounes and a smaller party, Afek Tounes.

Essid's new government is expected to implement economic reforms demanded by Tunisia's international lenders and to continue its campaign against Islamist militants.

Legislators will vote this week on whether to ratify the new government.

Four years after a popular uprising that toppled the autocratic President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia has been seen by many as an example of political compromise in the process of transition to democracy. It has adopted a new constitution and held free elections.

Some material for this report came from AP, AFP and Reuters.

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