TUNIS — Soufien Toubal, leader of Nidaa Tounes' parliamentary bloc, on April 13 announced on Facebook that he had been elected president of the party’s Central Committee at a congress held in Hammamet. A day later in a statement to state television, Hafedh Caid Essebsi, son of Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi, announced that he had been elected to lead Nidaa Tounes’ Central Committee at a party congress held in Monastir.
Nidaa Tounes had convened an electoral congress in Monastir on April 6 — with President Essebsi, the founder of the party in attendance — to elect members of the party’s political bureau. Elections for a new head of its Central Committee would then follow. Interparty disputes erupted as soon as the results were announced for the political bureau.