Epoch Times:
TUNIS, Tunisia—Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi, the North African country’s first democratically elected leader, has died. He was 92.
The succession plan is uncertain, and his death could lead to new power struggles in the only country to emerge from the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings with a functioning democracy and relative stability.
Essebsi died on July 23 at the Tunis military hospital, where he was taken the night before, presidential spokeswoman Aida Klibi told The Associated Press. The presidential Facebook page said funeral plans will be announced shortly.
Heir to Tunisia’s founding father, Essebsi emerged from retirement at age 88 to win office in 2014 in the wake of the country’s Arab Spring revolt. He presented his centrist Nida Tounes movement as a bulwark against rising Islamic fundamentalism and against the political chaos that rocked Tunisia after the “jasmine revolution” overthrew a longtime dictator and unleashed similar protests for democracy throughout the region. more