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Tunisians go to run-off polls

20 Dec, 2014 - 22:12 0 Views

The Sunday News

Tunisians are set to go to polls in the country’s first-ever presidential run-off election, nearly four years after its revolution.

The first election round held on November 23 saw Beji Caid Essebsi, an 88-year-old veteran, take 39 percent of the vote. The run-off being held today.

Incumbent 69-year-old Moncef Marzouki won 33 percent of the vote and will now face off Essebsi.

As no candidate won more than 50 percent of the vote, the election went into run-off between the top two.

Almost 5,3 million Tunisians are eligible to vote amid tight security.

Citizens living abroad began voting on Friday.

The final result of the election is expected to be announced between December 22 and 24 and the new president will be in office for the next five years.

Tunisia, the birthplace of pro-democracy protests across North Africa and the Middle East, rose up against Western-backed dictator, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, in 2011. Ben Ali fled Tunisia to Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of the country’s revolution.

This is the first time a head of state is freely elected since Tunisia’s independence from France in 1956. – Presstv

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