The head of the Independent High Electoral Commission in Tunisia has announced his resignation. Mohamed Tlili Al-Mansri made a public statement about this on Thursday. A former head of the constitutionally-required Commission has called upon the Tunisian parliament to initiate the recruitment procedure to fill the vacancy.

In late May, the board of the Commission referred a request to remove Al-Mansri from his duties to Parliament for approval. In an earlier statement to Anadolu News Agency, an anonymous source explained that the decision was made for several reasons, the most important of which was the lack of communication between Al-Mansri and the rest of the Commission members. Apparently, he was inclined to make decisions by himself on many issues that the source chose not to mention. His removal was sought according to the terms of Chapter 15 of the law governing the Independent High Electoral Commission.

Chapter 15 provides for the “exemption” of the president of the Commission or a member of the board in case of a serious error in performing the duties entrusted to him/her; or in the event of conviction under a judgment pronounced for intentional misdemeanour or felony, in addition to failing to preserve anyone of the conditions for which s/he was eligible to become a member of the Commission. The request for exemption must be submitted by at least half of the members of the Commission’s board and submitted to the plenary session of Parliament for approval by an absolute majority of its members.

Parliament elected Al-Mansri to the post in November last year. His appointment came six months after the resignation of the former post-holder, Shafik Sarsar, and after the parliament had failed to reach consensus on his successor on a number of occasions.

Poll: 80% of Tunisians believe their country is going in the ‘wrong direction’