TUNIS - Tunisia's Constitutional Council announced that under the constitution the speaker of parliament, not the prime minister, should be the interim president, state television reported on Saturday. Tunisian Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi said on Friday he was taking over as interim president because the incumbent, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, was temporarily unable to fulfil his duties. The council, the country's highest legal authority on constitutional issues, also said the constitution requires new presidential elections to be held no later than 60 days from now, state television reported. "The Constitutional Council announces that the post of president is definitively vacant so we should refer to article 57 of the constitution, which states that the speaker of parliament occupies the post of president temporarily and calls for elections within a period of between 45 and 60 days," Fathi Abd Ennather, president of the council said on state television.
