Tunisia's Ennahda suffering internal cracks

The Ennahda Movement, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Tunisia, has sustained one defeat after another, especially after the Tunisian parliament refused to give confidence to the cabinet formed by prime minister-designate Habib Jemli, an Ennahda nominee.
Internal cracks
The Ennahda coordinator in the
French city of Nice, Hajjar Barcous has submitted her resignation. She
attributed the resignation to recent moves by the Islamist movement.
On January 14, Hesham Laarayedh,
a son of Tunisian Interior Minister, Ali Laarayedh, also submitted his resignation
from the movement. Other members of the movement followed suit, even without
clarifying the reasons behind this.
Some of the leaders of the movement criticized, meanwhile,
the movement head and Parliament Speaker Rached Ghannouchi, accusing him of
manipulating the movement.
According to Tunisian newspapers, resignations have become a
feature of Ennahda in recent months. This, they said, is proof of the implosion
of the movement.
Expected downfall
The failure of Jemli to wins parliamentary support for the
cabinet lineup he formulated coincide with growth in the intensity of criticism
to Ghannouchi, against the background of his latest visit to Turkey and his
meeting with Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In visiting Turkey and meeting the Turkish president,
Ghannouchi did not take permission from the parliament or even followed the
protocol in this regard.
The Ennahda Deputy Head, Abd al-Ḥamīd Jalāṣī, expected Ghannouchi not to be reelected as head of the
Islamist movement.
He said in his capacity as the
speaker of the parliament, Ghannouchi cannot double as the head of the movement
any more.
Jalāṣī said he is deeply concerned at demands by some Ennahda
members for changing the internal laws of the movement in order to allow
Ghannouchi to stay longer in the leadership of the movement.
Political movements that fall into despotism pose danger to
their countries, Jalāṣī said.