The Tunisian Parliament began on Thursday a vote on withdrawing confidence from Tunisian Parliament Speaker Rached Ghannouchi.

The Tunisian parliament devoted its session today to vote on the motion submitted by dozens of MPs, led by the MPs from the liberal Free Constitutional Party, to withdraw confidence from Ghannouchi, the leader of the Islamist Ennahda movement,  but the dispute over the method of voting sparked tensions at the start of the session.

The chairperson of the session was forced to adjourn this morning session during secret balloting on the confidence withdrawal motion as mayhem broke out in parliament between opposition and Ennahda MPs.

The session and secret balloting were resumed shortly after.

MPs from smaller opposition parties and recently resigned ruling coalition parties also support withdrawing confidence from the leader of the Islamic Renaissance Movement, the largest bloc in parliament, charging that he violated rules of procedure and failed to run the sessions in a partial manner.

A request to withdraw confidence from the speaker requires an absolute majority vote of 109 votes from a total of 207 MPs.

More to follow