Tunisians vote for post-revolution president

TUNIS, Tunisia (UPDATED) – Tunisians voted Sunday, December 21, in the runoff of the first free presidential election in the country’s history, the final leg of an at times bumpy four-year transition from dictatorship.

The second round vote pits 88-year-old favourite Beji Caid Essebsi, leader of the anti-Islamist Nidaa Tounes party, against incumbent Moncef Marzouki, who held the post through an alliance with the moderate Islamist movement Ennahda.

Authorities deployed tens of thousands of soldiers and police to provide polling day security.

Just hours before polls opened at 8 am local time (0700 GMT), troops guarding ballot papers in the central region of Kairouan came under attack and shot dead one assailant and captured three, the defense ministry said.

Ahead of the landmark vote, which sets Tunisia apart from the turmoil of other Arab Spring countries, jihadists had issued a videotaped threat against the North African state’s political establishment.

It is the first time that Tunisians have freely elected their president since independence from France in 1956.

Amid tight security and the closure of main border posts with strife-torn neighbor Libya, almost 5.3 million Tunisians were eligible to vote.

Polls were due to close at 6 pm local time (1700 GMT) and the result is due to be announced between Monday and Wednesday (December 22 and 24).

A first round held on November 23 saw Essebsi win 39 percent of the vote, 6 percentage points ahead of Marzouki, a 69-year-old former rights activist installed by parliament two months after December 2011 polls.

The vote is the country’s third in as many months, after Nidaa Tounes won an October parliamentary election, making Essebsi favorite to be the next president, but with powers curbed under constitutional amendments to guard against a return to dictatorship.

The campaign was marked by mudslinging, with Essebsi refusing to take part in a debate with Marzouki, claiming his opponent is an “extremist”.

Essebsi insists that Marzouki represents the Islamists, charging that they had “ruined” the country since the 2011 revolution which toppled veteran ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and gave birth to the Arab Spring.

‘Dictatorship is over’

Marzouki in turn accused Essebsi, who served as a senior official in previous Tunisian regimes, of wanting to restore the old guard deposed in the revolution.

Voters said they regretted the lack of restraint shown by candidates in the campaign but believed the country was on the path towards democracy.

“Our candidates and their policies perhaps aren’t the best but we’re moving forward – the dictatorship is over,” said Tunis shopkeeper Mohammed Taieb.

In an Internet video posted Wednesday, December 17, jihadists claimed the 2013 murder of two secular politicians that plunged Tunisia into crisis, and warned of more killings of politicians and security forces.

Last year’s murders had threatened to derail Tunisia’s post-Arab Spring transition until a compromise government was formed in January this year.

In the video, jihadist Abou Mossaab called on Tunisians to boycott the poll runoff, saying the authorities “are turning you into infidels with these elections”.

But defence ministry spokesman Belhassan Oueslati said he did not believe the jihadists were behind the pre-dawn attack on a school in the Kairouan region where ballot papers had been stored under army guard.

“The vigilance of the soldiers and the swiftness of their response thwarted this operation and led to the death of a man armed with a hunting rifle and the arrest of three suspects,” Oueslati told Agence France-Presse.

“Generally, the terrorists don’t use hunting rifles,” he added.

In addition to the jihadist threat, Tunisia faces major challenges.

Its economy is struggling to recover from the upheaval of the revolution, and there are also fears of widespread joblessness causing social unrest.

The International Crisis Group think tank has said Tunisia was the “last hope” for a peaceful transition to democracy, setting it apart from other Arab Spring countries such as Libya and Egypt.

“In the context of the meagre harvest of the Arab Spring, Tunisia remains the last hope for a successful democratic transition,” it said.

“The country and its allies have every reason to ensure that Tunisia continues on its exceptional course.” – Rappler.com