Tunisia’s parliament speaker narrowly survives confidence vote

Tunisia’s parliament speaker narrowly survived a confidence vote on Thursday, but his slim margin of victory may only deepen the country’s political divisions after the resignation of the prime minister.

Some 97 members of parliament voted against Rached Ghannouchi, veteran leader of the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, falling short of the 109 needed to oust him.

However, with Ennahda and the conservative Karama party boycotting the vote to show their opposition to the motion, only 16 MPs gave him formal support.

The vote comes two weeks after Tunisia’s government collapsed less than five months into its term following corruption allegations against the prime minister, which he denied.