In These New Times

PressTV

24th January, 2011

Thousands of Tunisian protesters have defied the nighttime curfew to camp out in front of interim Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi’s office, calling for the resignation of the government.

The protesters say Ghannouchi, who was a key ally of the country’s ousted president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and other members of the former ruling party the Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD), should leave the Tunisian interim government.

RCD party remains in power despite the ouster of former President Ben Ali.

By defying a state of emergency, protesters set up tents and laid out sleeping bags in front of Ghannouchi’s office in the capital Tunis Sunday night to repeat their demand for the government’s resignation.

“We won’t leave the square until the government resigns,” Mizar, a student from Sidi Bouzid town in central Tunisia, told AFP.

“We have come to bring down the rest of the dictatorship,” said Mohammed Layani, an elderly protester.

Ghannouchi vowed in a televised speech on Saturday to quit his post after the upcoming election due in six months and put an end to his political career, but insisted that he should be there to guard the country through transition to democracy.

Opposition politicians and human rights groups, however, called on the interim government to release all political prisoners.

Despite the new government’s repeated insistence that it has given a blanket amnesty to all political groups, including the banned Islamist opposition, protesters have complained that only a few hundred of those imprisoned for political reasons during Ben Ali’s 23-year rule have been released.

Tunisia’s revolution, which led to the overthrow of Ben Ali, has greatly affected the North African nations and sparked similar protests across the region.

On Saturday, hundreds of Egyptians gathered outside the Tunisian Embassy in the capital Cairo to show their solidarity with Tunisians and called for protests similar to those in Tunisia.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Algerians defied a ban to stage protest rallies in the capital Algiers on Saturday amid fears that the Tunisian example might repeat itself in the neighboring country.

Algerian protesters were confronted by dozens of police officers armed with batons and tear gas.

The opposition, Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), says several people were arrested and injured as Algerian police broke up the demonstrations.