Tunisia's Interior Minister Farhat Rajhi on Sunday suspended the country's former ruling Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD) party, Xinhua reported.
In a statement read out on Tunisian television, Rajhi said that the RCD was suspended from all political activities and that all of its offices would be shut down, the first step towards the dissolution of the party by judicial authorities.
The initiative was taken as violence erupted in the southern town of Sidi Bouzid and in El Kef, some 200 km northwest of the capital during the weekend, which killed six people. In both towns, police stations were set ablaze and several police officers were arrested.
On Saturday evening, a protester was killed and several others were injured in the southern town of Kebili following overnight clashes with the police, said the official TAP press agency. The trouble erupted following a protest by the local people against the appointment of a new governor associated with the RCD.