Tunisian PM offers election date amid calls to dissolve government

Tunisia’s Prime Minister Ali Larayedh announced a much-anticipated date for elections in a public address late Monday, after the second assassination of an opposition leader this year drove thousands of Tunisians – both for and against the ruling Ennahda Islamist party – to the streets.

Tunisian nationals will go to the polls on Dec. 17, Larayedh said in an address, televised live on Al Jazeera.

The same day, a spokesperson for the Ettakatol Party, part of the Ennahda’s coalition at the nation’s Constituent Assembly, said that “if [Ennahda] refuses to dissolve the government, Ettakatol will withdraw itself from the coalition.”

Larayedh called opposition gestures to oust the ruling government exploitative, saying that the move will push Tunisia into chaos.

Last Thursday, assailants gunned down the leader of the opposition Popular Front Party, Mohamed Brahmi, months after a similar shooting killed another opposition leader, Chokri Belaid. Police said both were killed using the same gun. Political commentators called the series of assassinations damaging to the post-revolutionary country's attempt to build a democratic government.

On Sunday, some 65 members of the Constituent Assembly temporarily withdrew themselves, many joining in protests calling to dissolve the ruling Ennahda-led government.

Authorities have attributed the killings to armed radical groups, but Ennahda’s opponents blame the ruling party for not cracking down on the radicals, who have conducted multiple attacks on various perceived adversaries – including a TV station, NessmaTV, and religious sites that they feel do not comply with their vision of Islam.