Tunisia’s President Kais Saied has met with the brand new speaker of parliament, Ibrahim Bouderbala, following his election in the course of the meeting’s first sitting on Monday.

The 71-year-old is the previous chief of the Tunisian Bar Affiliation and a staunch ally of the president.

The brand new parliament was voted in following an election final 12 months with a turnout of simply 11 per cent. Solely 154 of its 161 seats have been crammed thus far, of which 25 locations are held by ladies.

The principle opposition coalition, the Nationwide Salvation Entrance, mentioned in a press release on Monday that it could not recognise the meeting, which can function below a structure written by Saied final 12 months, and have little or no energy in comparison with the physique it replaces.

President Kais Saied shut down the earlier elected parliament in July 2021, ruling by decree in a transfer that opposition events have described as a coup.

Unbiased journalists and international media weren’t allowed to attend Monday’s opening session of parliament for the primary time since Tunisia’s 2011 revolution.

Officers advised reporters that solely state TV and radio and the state information company had been allowed to cowl the occasion.