From Business Standard

Tunisia’s political crisis showed no sign of being resolved, amid warnings against a slide into the carnage that has swept fellow Arab Spring country Egypt since democratic polls.

Rached Ghannouchi, head of the moderate Islamist party Ennahda that heads a coalition cabinet, slammed the opposition as “anarchists” for demanding the resignation of Tunisia’s elected government.

Three weeks into a crisis triggered by the assassination of opposition leader Mohamed Brahmi, Ghannouchi ruled out the formation of a government of technocrats as demanded by the opposition.

“That would spell danger for the country, it would push us towards the void and finish off the democratic experiment in Tunisia,” he said.

He renewed Ennahda’s offer of negotiations with the opposition to bring in other parties and form a government of national unity, and reiterated its roadmap for drawing up a new constitution and holding fresh elections by the end of 2013.

“In democracies, governments don’t fall because of sit-ins or demonstrations but after elections or a lost vote of confidence in parliament,” said the Ennahda chief.

Ghannouchi said a second round of negotiations between the government and the powerful UGTT trade union aimed at hammering out a compromise would be held, after an initial meeting this week failed to make any headway.

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