TheCable

Incumbent President Moncef Marzouki (pictured) has lost in the first round of the landmark election heralding the return of Tunisia to full democracy since the Arab Spring in 2011.

According to results on Tuesday, Tunisian secularist leader, Beji Caid Essebsi, beat Marzouki in the first round of presidential election, but the two contenders will have to face another run-off election in December.

Essebsi, from the Nidaa Tounes Party (NTP) has polled 39.46% of the Sunday poll, keeping him short of the needed overall majority, but ahead of Marzouki, who got 33.4%.

The vote for Tunisia’s first directly-elected president marks the final step in the North African state’s transition to full democracy after the popular Arab uprising in 2011, ousting 24-year-long ruler Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who ruled from 1987 to 2011.

Essebsi is a former Ben Ali official and Marzouki had depicted the race as a chance for voters to reject the old order and the old guard.

More than three years since overthrowing Ben Ali’s one-party rule, Tunisia adopted a new constitution, with rival secularist and Islamist parties largely avoiding the turmoil that has plagued other Arab states swept by popular revolts.

Tunisia’s constitution was reviewed to accommodate a re-election of Ben Ali in 2004, which angered the international community and Tunisia’s local community in a build up to his ejection.