Tunisia’s 92-year-old President Beji Caid Essebsi said Saturday he does not plan to stand for re-election in the November polls, in order to make way for someone younger.
“In all honesty, I don’t think I will put myself forward,” Essebsi told the Nidaa Tounes party which he founded in 2012, adding it was time “to open the door to the youth”.
His speech before thousands of members at the party’s congress came several days after Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the 82-year-old ailing leader of neighbouring Algeria, resigned in the face of huge protests ending two decades in power.
Essebsi, Tunisia’s first democratically elected president, urged his party however to overcome bitter internal divisions and to bring Prime Minister Youssef Chahed back into the fold.
Tensions have flared between Chahed and Essebsi’s son, Hafedh Caid Essebsi, leading to the premier being sidelined from…
Source: News Agency of Nigeria
