Tunisia votes in landmark presidential election
Tunisia Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa casts his vote in the country's first post-revolution presidential election on November 23, 2014 in Tunis. Some 5.3 million people are eligible to vote. PHOTO | AFP
What you need to know:
- Some 5.3 million people are eligible to vote, with tens of thousands of police and troops deployed to guarantee security amid fears Islamist militants might seek to disrupt polling day.
- A run-off vote will be held at the end of December if no one secures an absolute majority.
TUNIS
Tunisians voted Sunday in their first presidential election since the 2011 revolution that sparked the Arab Spring, in a ballot set to round off an often fraught transition to democracy.
Among the 27 candidates the favourite is former premier Beji Caid Essebsi, an 87-year-old veteran whose anti-Islamist Nidaa Tounes party won a parliamentary election last month.
Others vying for the presidency include outgoing President Moncef Marzouki, several ministers who served under ousted dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, leftwinger Hamma Hammami, business magnate Slim Riahi and a lone woman, magistrate Kalthoum Kannou.
Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa hailed the vote.
“It’s a historic day, the first presidential election in Tunisia held under advanced democratic norms,” Jomaa said. “God willing, it will be a great festival of democracy.”
Some 5.3 million people are eligible to vote, with tens of thousands of police and troops deployed to guarantee security amid fears Islamist militants might seek to disrupt polling day.
Polling hours were restricted to just five in some 50 localities close to the Algerian border, where armed groups are active.
Everywhere else, polls were due to close at 1700 GMT.
A run-off vote will be held at the end of December if no one secures an absolute majority.
