President of Tunisia, formally known as the President of the Tunisian Republic, رئيس الجمهورية التونسية, Président de la République tunisienne, is the head of state of Tunisia. Tunisia is a presidential republic in which the president is the head of the executive branch of government with the assistance of the Prime Minister of Tunisia, formally the head of government. Under Article 44 of the Constitution of Tunisia, the president is also the commander-in-chief of the Tunisian Armed Forces.
According to the constitution, the president is elected by universal suffrage for a term of five years. Currently, the president may be re-elected for an unlimited number of terms in office. This in contrast to the term limit of three terms that in place prior to June 2002, excluding the life presidency that existed between 1975 and 1982.
For most of its history as an independent state, Tunisia has lacked political freedom and has seen the violation of human rights. Because of this, presidencial elections in Tunisia, such as that of 2009, have lacked international credibility, with elections dominated by the ruling party, the Constitutional Democratic Rally and its previous incarnations as the Neo Destour party and the Socialist Destourian Party.
Since the promulgation of a republican constitution in June 1959, three years after gaining independence from France, Tunisia has had just two elected presidents. The first president was Habib Bourguiba, who served as president from 1959 after effectively serving as the country's leader from 1956. He was removed from office in a coup d'état in 1987, during which he was declared medically unfit to perform his duties. His successor was Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who served as president from 1987 until 2011, when he was forced from office during an uprising against his rule. Following his departure in January 2011, Mohamed Ghannouchi and Fouad Mebazaa served terms as acting president. Since 12 December 2011, the interim president has been Moncef Marzouki.
Moncef Marzouki, المنصف المرزوقي (al-Munṣif al-Marzūqī); born 7 July 1945 is a Tunisian human rights activist, physician and politician. On 12 December 2011 he was elected interim President of Tunisia by the Constituent Assembly.
Born in Grombalia, Tunisia, Marzouki studied medicine at the University of Strasbourg in France. Returning to Tunisia in 1979, he founded the Center for Community Medicine in Sousse and the African Network for Prevention of Child Abuse, also joining Tunisian League for Human Rights. In his youth, he had travelled to India to study Mahatma Gandhi's peaceful resistance. Later, he also travelled to South Africa to study its transition from Apartheid.
When the government cracked down violently on the Islamist Ennahda Movement in 1991, Marzouki confronted Tunisian President Ben Ali calling on him to adhere to the law. In 1993, Marzouki was a founding member of the National Committee for the Defense of Prisoners of Conscience, but he resigned after it was taken over by supporters of the government. He was arrested on several occasions on charges relating to the propagation of false news and working with banned Islamist groups. He subsequently founded the National Committee for Liberties. He became President of the Arab Commission for Human Rights and as of 17 January 2011 continues as a member of its Executive Board.
In 2001, he founded the Congress for the Republic. This was banned in 2002, but Marzouki moved to France and continued running it.
Following President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's departure from Tunisia and the 2010–2011 Tunisian protests, Marzouki announced his return to Tunisia and his intention to run for the presidency.
On 12 December 2011, the Constituent Assembly of Tunisia, a body elected to govern the country and draft a new constitution, elected Marzouki as the interim President of the Tunisian Republic, with 155 votes for, 3 against, and 42 blank votes. Blank votes were the result of a boycott from the opposition parties, who considered the new mini-constitution of the country an undemocratic one.
On 14 December, one day after his accession to office, he appointed Hamadi Jebali of the moderate Islamist Ennahda Movement as Prime Minister. Jebali presented his government on 20 December.
