Tunisia’s Presidential election to be decided in runoff

Tunisia’s first democratic presidential elections will go to a runoff in December between the two leading candidates, President Moncef Marzouki and former Prime Minister Beji Caid Essebsi, the election board announced on Tuesday.

Preliminary results of the first round of the election, held on Sunday, showed Essebsi, 87, receiving 39.46 per cent of votes and Marzouki 33.43 per cent. The two men were far ahead of the rest of the 27 candidates. As no candidate secured a majority of votes, the two front-runners will face each other in a runoff, New York Times reports.

The second round will be held on December 14 or 21, depending on the time needed for the adjudication of complaints about the first round of voting, election officials said.

The leader of the left-wing Popular Front, Hamma Hammami, obtained 7.82 per cent of votes; the businessman Hechmi Hamdi secured 5.75 per cent; and the tycoon Slim Riahi received 5.55 per cent.

For the most part, national and international observers declared the election credible and well administered, and said it was a positive achievement for the country four years after a popular uprising overthrew President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and inspired pro-democracy movements across the region.

The observers noted, however, that much of Tunisia’s youth did not bother to vote, a cause for concern in a country with a high proportion of young people