Tunisian parliament speaker to be interim leader after president Essebsi’s death

The speaker of Tunisia’s parliament, Mohamed Ennaceur, will be sworn in as interim president later on Thursday, the deputy parliament speaker said after the announcement of the death of 92-year-old president Beji Caid Essebsi.

The prime minister also declared seven days of national mourning.

Essebsi, who helped guide the north African country’s transition to democracy after the 2011 ‘Arab Spring’ uprising, has been a prominent politician in Tunisia since the overthrow of veteran autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali. The events in Tunisia were followed by uprisings across the Middle East, including in nearby Libya and Egypt.

Drafted in as prime minister in 2011 after Ben Ali was toppled, Essebsi was elected president three years later, becoming the country’s first directly-elected head of state after the revolution.