TUNIS, Tunisia -                                 Following the death president Beji Caid Essebs, earlier on Thursday, 25 July, the speaker of the Tunisian Parliament, Mohamed Ennaceur has announced himself new president

“I would like to pay tribute to the late President Beji Caid Essebsi for [efforts in] the establishment of the independent state and then the presidency in the past five years,” Ennaceur said in a televised statement.

He went on to call for unification to achieve aspirations of the Tunisian people.

The Tunisian parliament is slated later Thursday to hold an urgent session regarding filling the vacant president post.

Born in 1934, Ennaceur holds a PhD in law from Sorbonne University in Paris.

He has served as Speaker of Parliament since December 2014 from Nidaa Tounes party that had secured majority of the country's legislative election.

The late president Essebsi died at age 92.