Tunisia election: anti-Islamist Beji Caid Essebsi claims victory in disputed poll

The anti-Islamist veteran Beji Caid Essebsi has claimed victory in Tunisia’s first free presidential election.
Tunisians took to the polls on Sunday for the leadership runoff vote, with many calling the ballot a landmark for democracy in the country where the Arab Spring was born.
Official results are not due until Monday evening but unofficial exit polls indicated that Essebsi’s Nidaa Tounes party had won 55% of the vote, with his rival, the incumbent Moncef Marzouki, on 45%.
Essebsi, 88, appeared before 2,000 supporters who gathered outside his campaign headquarters in the capital Tunis shouting “Long live Tunisia!” and thanked the voters.

Beji Caid Essebsi speaks to supporters outside his party headquarters in Tunis on Sunday after claiming victory in the presidential run-off. Photograph: Zoubeir Souissi/Reuters

“Tunisia needs all its children. We must work hand in hand,” he said as supporters cheered.
Marzouki dismissed the declaration as unfounded and refused to concede defeat. His camp said the result was too close to call and accused the Essebsi of election “violations”.
It is the first time Tunisians have freely elected their president since independence from France in 1956.

Authorities had urged a big turnout to consolidate democracy following a chaotic four-year transition. Election organisers said turnout was at 59.04%.
Just hours before polling began on Sunday morning, troops guarding ballot papers in the central region of Kairouan came under attack and shot dead one assailant and captured three, the defence ministry said.

Tunisian presidential candidate Moncef Marzouki waves to supporters on Sunday night. He has refused to concede defeat despite exit polls showing he has lost to Beji Caid Essebsi. Photograph: Ilyess Osmane/AP

Prime minister Mehdi Jomaa condemned what he called a “desperate attempt” to disrupt the election, and later told AFP that what had happened was of no “impact”, adding that the security situation was under control.
The authorities had deployed tens of thousands of soldiers and police to provide security for polling day.

Ahead of the vote, which sets Tunisia apart from the turmoil of other Arab Spring countries, jihadists issued a videotaped threat against the North African state’s political establishment.
But voters seemed unfazed.
“This is a big day. I am proud to take part in this historic moment,” said Bechir Ghiloufi, a 54-year-old bank director in Tunis. “It is important to progress towards democracy.”

Raja Gafsi, a 58-year-old worker, said: “It is time to move on and set up long-lasting institutions.”
Like most voters, he was anxious to see a return to political and economic stability and security.
A first round on November 23 saw Essebsi win 39 percent of the vote, six percentage points ahead of Marzouki, a 69-year-old former rights activist installed by parliament two months after December 2011 polls.

Nidaa Tounes won parliamentary polls in October, making Essebsi favourite to be the next president, but with powers curbed under constitutional amendments to guard against a return to dictatorship.
The campaign was marked by mudslinging, with Essebsi refusing to take part in a debate with Marzouki, claiming his opponent was “extremist”.

Essebsi insists that Marzouki represents the Islamists, charging that they had “ruined” the country since the 2011 revolution which toppled veteran ruler Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and sparked the Arab Spring.
Marzouki in turn accused Essebsi, who served as a senior official in previous Tunisian regimes, of wanting to restore the old guard deposed in the revolution.

Source- The Guardian