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Tunisia’s Premier Resigns, Formally Ending His Party’s Rule

Ali Larayedh on Thursday after stepping down as prime minister. The resignation of his Ennahda Party government is part of a political agreement.Credit...Fethi Belaid/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

TUNIS — Tunisia’s Islamist prime minister resigned Thursday, ending the two-year-old rule of his party, which has dominated the political scene since the popular uprising here that initiated the Arab Spring.

The departing prime minister, Ali Larayedh of the Ennahda Party, handed power to a caretaker government that will oversee elections later in the year.

The resignation of the Ennahda government is a setback for the Islamists who wanted to lead the country into elections, but is part of a carefully calibrated political agreement with opposition parties to break months of deadlock. Members of the National Constituent Assembly had been stalling proceedings and demanding the resignation of the government since the assassination of a secular politician, Mohammad Brahmi, last July. It was the second assassination in six months, and opposition groups blamed Mr. Larayedh for what they called his laxity toward Islamist extremist threats.

His resignation is the first time Islamists have agreed to step down in the face of rising public anger after coming to power in the wake of Arab Spring uprisings. Tunisia’s experience, which remains marked by deep divisions between religious and secular constituencies, is in stark contrast to the sectarian-tinged civil war in Syria or the decision by the Egyptian military to outlaw its Islamist opponent, the Muslim Brotherhood. Months of intense negotiations have allowed Tunisia, for now at least, to try to find common ground in the contest for the future character of the state.

Under an agreement mediated by the main labor union, political parties settled on an interim prime minister, Mehdi Jomaa, an independent figure who is the current minister of industry, last month. The assembly has resumed work to complete outstanding business, namely to ratify the constitution, nominate the electoral board and prepare an electoral law.

Mr. Larayedh handed his resignation to President Moncef Marzouki on Thursday afternoon, hours after the assembly had voted in members of the new independent election board. The interim prime minister, Mr. Jomaa, was expected to present his cabinet on Friday. Mr. Larayedh told journalists at the presidential palace that he would continue to manage the country’s affairs until the new prime minister had formed his government and the constitution had been ratified.

“A while ago I promised to resign when the country was on a clear track, when there was a modern constitution and an independent board of elections, which we hope will be held soon, and a new government agreed by consensus to prepare for the elections,” he said. “This was our goal in the national dialogue so that Tunisians can find an exit that avoids internal conflict.”

One of Tunisia’s most prominent former political prisoners, Mr. Larayedh, 58, is a founding member of Ennahda, or Renaissance, the country’s main Islamist movement. He was imprisoned and tortured during the dictatorship of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.

With a degree in maritime engineering, Mr. Larayedh spent much of his adult life underground in political activism, teaching in private schools to earn a living. He was arrested in 1990 and served 14 consecutive years in prison, many of them in solitary confinement.

After the revolution that overthrew Mr. Ben Ali, Ennahda won national elections in October 2011 and formed a coalition interim government. Mr. Larayedh was appointed interior minister in December 2011 and became prime minister in February 2013. He was criticized for failing to curb violence committed by extremist Islamists, including an attack on the American Embassy in September 2012 and the assassination of a prominent leftist politician, Chokri Belaid, last February.

He is stepping down at a time of growing social unrest amid worsening security and economic difficulties.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 4 of the New York edition with the headline: Tunisia’s Premier Resigns, Formally Ending His Party’s Rule. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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