Tunisia votes in historic presidential elections

[Valin]

Deutsche Welle:

Tunisians are voting for their first directly-elected president in a landmark poll, widely seen as a key step in the transition to democracy. Dictator Ben Ali was ousted in a popular uprising nearly four years ago.

11/23/14

 

Voting got off to a peaceful start on Sunday, as Tunisians participated in their first free presidential elections since the 2011 revolution that ended the rule of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and sparked Arab Spring revolts across the Middle East.

 

"It's a historic day, the first presidential election in Tunisia held under advanced democratic norms," Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa said. "God willing, it will be a great festival of democracy."

 

About 5.2 million people are eligible to vote at the 11,000 polling stations across the country. Tens of thousands of police and troops were deployed amid security fears the poll could be disrupted by Islamist militants. Voting hours were reduced from 10 to five in some 50 localities close to the Algerian border where armed groups are active.

 

Yasmine Ryan

 

Waiting to vote in #Tunisia's first free presidential elections, at a polling station in Bab Jdid #TnPrez

 

1:20 AM - 23 Nov 2014

 

 

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[Valin]

Tunisia Live


"So far the voting process has gone remarkably well. Rules have been scrupulously observed in almost 100% of cases."-EU Observation Mission

4:34 AM - 23 Nov 2014

[Valin]

Runoff Will Decide President of Tunisia
CARLOTTA GALL
NOV. 25, 2014

TUNIS — Tunisia’s first democratic presidential election will be decided in a runoff next month between the two leading candidates, President Moncef Marzouki and Beji Caid Essebsi, a former prime minister, the election board announced on Tuesday.

Preliminary results of the first round, held on Sunday, showed Mr. Essebsi in first place with 39.46 percent of the vote, and Mr. Marzouki second with 33.43 percent. The two front-runners will face each other in a runoff because no candidate secured a majority in the race.

Given that only six percentage points separated them in the first round, the runoff may well be a closer contest than expected. It has already reopened the deep divisions in Tunisian society between secularists and Islamists and could frustrate hopes of a national unity government between the two main blocs in Parliament: Mr. Essebsi’s party, Nidaa Tounes, and the main Islamist party, Ennahda.

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