Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed has confirmed he will take part in the country's upcoming presidential elections that are scheduled to take place on September 15.

Speaking before members of his Tahya Tounes party on Thursday, Chahed said he was ready to assume the role, which he professed entailed great "responsibility".

"It is a big responsibility and I know something about that," said the 43-year-old Chahed.

"Detractors will point to the negative but never talk about the reforms and accomplishments in favour of those less fortunate, the environment … our war against corruption and other such acts," he continued.

An agricultural engineer by training, Chahed was appointed prime minister in 2016 and is the seventh head of government the North African country has had since the 2011 overthrow of longtime leader Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali.

Tahya Tounes (Long Live Tunisia) - which Chahed helped found after falling out of grace with the late President Beji Caid Essebsi's Nidaa Tounes - had nominated him for the position last week.

After winning a plurality of seats in Tunisia's first democratically elected parliament in 2014, infighting within Essebsi's secularist Nidaa Tounes (The Call of Tunisia) led to the defection of more than half of the party's parliamentarians, including a breakaway faction that went on to form Tahya Tounes.

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