Reuters, TUNIS :
Tunisian secularist leader Beji Caid Essebsi has narrowly beaten incumbent President Moncef Marzouki in the first round of a landmark presidential election, but the two frontrunners must meet again in a December run-off.
The vote for Tunisia’s first directly elected president marks the final step in the North African state’s transition to full democracy following a 2011 revolution that ousted veteran autocrat Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.
A former Ben Ali era official, Essebsi, 87, has cast himself as an experienced statesman with the skills to manage Tunisia’s economy and security, dismissing critics who worry about the return of old regime officials.
Essebsi, from the secular Nidaa Tounes party, got 39.46 percent in Sunday’s vote, short of the needed overall majority but ahead of Marzouki, who got 33.4 percent, according to early results released on Thursday by election authorities.
Nidaa Tounes won the most seats in the October parliamentary election, defeating the moderate Islamist Ennahda party which won the first election after the 2011 uprising.
Tunisian secularist leader Beji Caid Essebsi has narrowly beaten incumbent President Moncef Marzouki in the first round of a landmark presidential election, but the two frontrunners must meet again in a December run-off.
The vote for Tunisia’s first directly elected president marks the final step in the North African state’s transition to full democracy following a 2011 revolution that ousted veteran autocrat Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.
A former Ben Ali era official, Essebsi, 87, has cast himself as an experienced statesman with the skills to manage Tunisia’s economy and security, dismissing critics who worry about the return of old regime officials.
Essebsi, from the secular Nidaa Tounes party, got 39.46 percent in Sunday’s vote, short of the needed overall majority but ahead of Marzouki, who got 33.4 percent, according to early results released on Thursday by election authorities.
Nidaa Tounes won the most seats in the October parliamentary election, defeating the moderate Islamist Ennahda party which won the first election after the 2011 uprising.
