Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid has overwhelmingly lost a confidence vote in parliament, after just a year and a half in office.

A total of 118 members of parliament voted on Saturday to unseat Essid, three voted for him to stay at the helm and 27 abstained.

The results were largely expected, with several ruling coalition party members declaring ahead of the session that they were not going to renew their confidence in the prime minister.

Earlier on Saturday, Essid, 67, had told parliament he knew he would be voted against.

"I didn't come to obtain the 109 votes [needed to remain in office]. I came to expose things to the people and to members of parliament," he said.

Negotiations on who the next prime minister will be are expected to start on Monday.

Essid was under pressure to quit ever since President Beji Caid Essebsi called for a new unity government last month to push through reforms and calm social tensions over the country's economic crisis, high unemployment and recent security issues.

"The prime minister was obviously surprised by the president's proposal," Youssef Cherif, a political analyst, told Al Jazeera from the capital, Tunis.

"Since then, the two sides began a mini 'cold war' - a war of words between the presidency and prime ministership."

Essid's coalition government was comprised of four groups, including Nidaa Tounes and the Ennahda party, the largest parliamentary force.

"There is an agreement between the parties and organisations on the need for change," Ennahda chief Rached Ghannouchi said last week, according to a Reuters news agency report.

The ruling coalition parties hold more than 150 seats out of 217 in parliament.

Last year, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) armed group claimed two high-profile attacks in Tunisia, killing 59 foreign tourists.

The country has been in a state of emergency since November 2015, when a suicide bombing, also claimed by ISIL, killed 12 presidential guards in central Tunis.

In addition to the security situation, nationwide unemployment stood at 15 percent at the end of last year.

*Agencies