Zine El Abidine Ben Ali temporarily the (presidential) duties." However, this arrangement was very short lived, because early the following day (15 January 2011) the Constitutional Court of Tunisia determined that Ben Ali was not "temporarily unable" to exercise his duties and that the presidency was in fact vacant. The arrangements he had made with the Prime Minister before leaving the country were found to be unconstitutional under article 57 of the constitution. The country's constitutional court, the highest legal authority on constitutional matters, announced the transition saying that Fouad Mebazaa (the Speaker of Parliament) had been appointed interim president. Mebazaa took the oath in
Hatem Ben Salem Hatem Ben Salem Hatem Ben Salem is a Tunisian politician. He was the Minister of Education under former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Hatem Ben Salem was born on February 8, 1956. He received a PhD in Law from the University of Paris and the agrégation from the University of Tunis. From 1996 to 2000, he was the Tunisian Ambassador to Senegal, then Guinea, Gambia, Cap Vert, Turkey, and then to the United Nations in Geneva. He is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London and the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg. He