113 leaders, members of Tunisia’s Islamist party resign

Tunis, Sep 26 : A total of 113 leaders and members of Tunisias Islamist party Ennahdha (Renaissance) have announced their collective resignation due to "lack of reforms", the national Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP) reported.

Former Minister of Health Abdellatif Mekki is among those who have resigned on Saturday from Ennahdha, the first majority party in the Tunisian Parliament, reports Xinhua news agency.

The list also included many leaders of Ennahdhas consultative assembly as well as members of regional councils.In a statement published in local media, they said their resignation is due to "the lack of reforms within the party", adding that "the leadership of Ennahdha is responsible for an important part of the deterioration of the situation in the country".

The signatories of the statement attributed the decision of their collective resignation to what they described as the "disruption of internal democracy" within the Ennahdha party and the centralization of the decision in recent years.On September 22, Tunisian President Kais Saied issued a decree to continue extending the exceptional measures of suspending activities of the parliament and freezing the immunity of all its members.

Saied ordered to put an end to all the grants and privileges granted to the parliament speaker and to all its members.On July 25, the President had announced that he had removed Hichem Mechichi from the post of Prime Minister and suspended all activities of the Assembly of Peoples Representatives, or Parliament.