Following his statements in Qatar— condemning and threatening the opposition with the gallows— Tunisia’s President Moncef Marzouki, faces withdrawal of confidence and dismissal from office.

It is a precedent in Tunisia and the Arab world to discuss passing a motion of no confidence to remove the president of the republic. Seventy-five members of the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) brought a no-confidence motion against the Interim President Moncef Marzouki early this month.

Following his statements in Qatar— condemning and threatening the opposition with the gallows— Tunisia’s President Moncef Marzouki, faces withdrawal of confidence and dismissal from office.

It is a precedent in Tunisia and the Arab world to discuss passing a motion of no confidence to remove the president of the republic. Seventy-five members of the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) brought a no-confidence motion against the Interim President Moncef Marzouki early this month.

NCA member for the Democratic and Social Path Party (center-left), Karima Souid, who is a member of the same party bloc of Samir Taieb who wrote the motion’s text, said the motion fulfilled legal requirements of being submitted by 75 out of the 217 NCA members, adding that the NCA Office would set a date for holding a plenary session to which the president would be summoned, regarding the charges leveled against him, including undermining the prestige of the presidency and the reputation of the country through his remarks made during his recent participation in the Arab summit in Doha, QatarTemporary Power Law requires the votes of two-thirds of the NCA members to withdraw confidence from the president. The president is blamed for breaching confidentiality through his statements to Al-Jazeera channel when he said, “If the far-left wing and hardline seculars come to power undemocratically either through strikes, violence or coups, their gallows and guillotines will be set.”

However, media statements of many of the motion signatories went beyond that to refer to what they considered “Marzouki’s failure to run the country.”

“The recent statements and talking about ‘setting up gallows’ were the drop that made the cup overflow, and they clearly revealed the personality of Marzouki who could not cope with the presidency and its required confidentiality,” said Mongi Rahoui, an NCA member of the Popular Front (a coalition of leftist and nationalist parties).

He added that Marzouki was still a prisoner of his previous experience and mixed his current position with his former one as head of the Conference for the Republic Party (CPR). Marzouki’s actions, said Rahoui, have not given the impression that he is the president of all Tunisians despite his limited powers and obligations.

He stressed that Marzouki acted in accordance with the interests and electoral agenda of his party and the ruling Troika parties. “We in the Popular Front have many reservations against him and his actions, especially his reception of members of the revolution protection leagues at the presidential palace even though they are accused of using violence. We greatly suspect that the murderer of Shoukri Belaid was a member of that delegation,” he said.

The motion states that its signatories believe that the political performance of the president is marked by failure, criticizing his speeches and contradictory statements. It also states that making statements at a foreign country reflects a negative image of the Tunisian society which is generally moderate, rational and open-minded to cosmic standards, and prevents achieving social peace that would contribute to finalizing the transitional path.

No member of the blocs of the Islamic Ennahda Movement – which leads the ruling troika coalition – or of CPR or Ettakatol – the other two parties in the Troika – has signed the motion, which makes it impossible to approve the motion because the ruling troika holds 109 seats and Wafa Bloc, which has dissented from CPR,  supports Marzouki.

“NCA members have the right to exercise their powers and adopt control mechanisms provided for in the Temporary Power Law, but the recent statements of the president – which reflect personal stands in my opinion – are not so bad as to lead to withdrawal of confidence. Practicing democracy is a good thing, but sometimes the country’s circumstances need more unity. For my part, I believe that the president should have not engaged in such issues and that his statements should have expressed everyone’s notions sincerely since he is the president of all Tunisians. However, if he freely expressed his positions and analyses, it should not lead directly to trial or no-confidence vote,” Ferida Lebidi, NCA member from Ennahda bloc, said.

Walid Banani a member of Ennahda bloc downplayed the motion, saying “It will not receive support and will be doomed to fail.”

Members of the Popular Petition stated that it should not lead to withdrawal of confidence since this might be against the voters’ wills and that holding the president accountable would be sufficient.

The president’s statements and positions have raised a lot of controversy among the Tunisian’s public opinion and even a sever anger among the opposition.

Naziha Réjiba, a struggler and human rights activist, expressed her shock by the president’s statements on “setting up gallows” for those who intended to lead a second revolution and came to power, saying, “Marzouki said what even Ben Ali dare not say.”

On the other hand, Head of the CPR bloc at NCA Haitham Ben Belqacem said he was confident that Marzouki would stay in office, stressing that Marzouki would once again get more than 140 votes in NCA as when he was elected president.

However, Ben Belqacem did not downplay the motion, saying that it was the first of its kind in the Arab world and proof of Tunisia’s democratic maturity and shift towards officials’ accountability, away from sit-ins and protests.

He suggested that through summoning the president to the NCA, he could defend his positions, clarify some of the facts and refute others and it would be in his favor not against him as some imagined.

Journalist Ziad Krishan said for the first time in Tunisia and the Arab world, a motion to withdraw confidence from an elected president was passed, but the transitional track was still fraught with numerous risks.

The opposition has also succeeded in passing a no-confidence motion against Minister of Women Sihem Badi, which was edited by MP Najla Boreal and signed by 78 MPs on the background of frequent incidents of rape and neglect in kindergartens which are the responsibility of the Ministry of Women.