When Ben Ali left, he invested the powers of interim presidency in Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi. At 6:00pm, two hours after Ben Ali fled the country, Ghannouchi went on state television, saying that Ben Ali was temporarily unable to exercise his duties as President of Tunisia. Ghannouchi promised reforms and open elections after meeting with the heads of political parties. Early the following morning, though, the Constitutional Court of Tunisia determined that Ben Ali could not place the power of the presidency in the hands of Ghannouchi. The Constitutional Court declared the move unconstitutional, citing Article 57 of the Tunisian constitution (incidentally the same article cited by Ben Ali in the coup that allowed him to take power). The Constitutional Court instead declared that Fouad Mebazaa, the Speaker of Parliament in Tunisia, as the interim president.
Video of Mebazaa speech after being sworn in as interim president:
I'm really interested in how this will act as a precedent for international law.
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