Tunisia Presidential candidate Beji Caid Essebsi after casting his vote at a polling station in Tunis on December 21, 2014. (Reuters)
Tunis:
Veteran politician Beji Caid Essebsi won Tunisia's first free Presidential election, beating rival and incumbent Moncef Marzouki with 55.68 per cent of the vote against 44.32 per cent, official results showed today.
The ballot marked the final step in Tunisia's transition to democracy after an uprising that ousted autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011 and inspired the Arab Spring revolts across North Africa and the Middle East.
Essebsi, a former official in Ben Ali's one-party administration, recast himself as a technocrat and his secular Call for Tunisia Party profited from the backlash against the country's first post-revolt Islamist government, which many voters blamed for turmoil after 2011.
The ballot marked the final step in Tunisia's transition to democracy after an uprising that ousted autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011 and inspired the Arab Spring revolts across North Africa and the Middle East.
Essebsi, a former official in Ben Ali's one-party administration, recast himself as a technocrat and his secular Call for Tunisia Party profited from the backlash against the country's first post-revolt Islamist government, which many voters blamed for turmoil after 2011.
© Thomson Reuters 2014
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world
