The people of Tunisia voted on Sunday to choose their new president among some two dozen candidates. It is Tunisia’s second free presidential poll since the 2011 uprising that toppled ex-president Ben Ali and sparked the Arab Spring.
The voting was held ahead of its scheduled time due to the sudden death of President Beji Caid Essebsi who died less than two months ago. The 92-year-old Essebsi was the first democratically elected president, who took office in 2014.
Twenty-six candidates are running in the election. The list includes some big names like Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, interim parliamentary speaker Abdelfattah Mourou and former defence minister Abdelkrim Zbidi. The two women candidates contesting the presidential election are former tourism minister Salma Elloumi and Abir Moussi, who heads a group formed from the remnants of Ben Ali’s ruling party.
The electoral commission announced that the overall voter turnout was relatively low at 45 percent. The need for a second round of the election will be there only if no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote in Sunday’s polls. The date of the runoff will be announced once the final first-round results are declared.
According to early exit polls, two candidates claim to have qualified for the second round. As per the polls, an independent outsider, Kais Saied, and business tycoon Nabil Karoui have done well in the first round of votes getting 19.5 percent and 15.5 percent of the votes respectively, reported France 24. The two are likely to have qualified for the second round. Karoui was jailed since last month on money laundering and tax evasion charges.
The electoral body is expected to announce the preliminary results on Tuesday.
In related news, Chadlia Farhat, the wife of Tunisia’s late president, Beji Caid Essebsi died on Sunday, as Tunisians were voting to elect his successor. She died at the age of 83.
