TUNIS, Tunisia

The Tunisian Free Constitution Party said on Monday it was preparing a petition to withdraw confidence from Tunisian Parliament Speaker Rached Ghannouchi, who is also the leader of the Ennahda party.
The head of the Free Constitution Party's parliamentary bloc, Abir Moussi, accused Ghannouchi of mismanagement and irregularities, represented in his recent visit to Turkey where he met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan without informing the parliament on the outcome of the meeting.

She added that according to the Tunisian law, the no-confidence vote against the speaker required the signatures of 73 lawmakers, as well as a simple majority -- 109 votes -- in a public session of parliament.

Yet, observers do not expect the Free Constitution Party will be able to gather the necessary support for the move.

For its part, the Ennahda party downplayed the Free Constitution Party's attempt, accusing it of raising unimportant issues.

Ennahda's spokesman, Imad al-Khamiri, stressed that the priority for the Tunisian parliament was to focus on forming a government in light of the failure of Habib Jemli's government to gain the parliament's confidence.

According to the Ennahda media office, Ghannouchi's visit was pre-planned and was conducted on behalf of the party.

* Ahmed Asmar contributed to this report from Ankara