Beji Caid Essebsi, an 88-year-old Cabinet minister from previous regimes, won Sunday’s presidential runoff, according to exit polls, cementing his dominance over a country where his party already controls Parliament.
Sigma Conseil company’s exit polls, which have consistently matched official results in Tunisia, gave Essebsi 55.5 percent of the vote and his opponent Moncef Marzouki, the outgoing interim president, 44.5 percent. Other polling companies gave similar figures. Official results are not expected for another 48 hours.
At a celebration in his party headquarters, Essebsi urged Marzouki’s supporters to work with him to rebuild the country. ‘‘The future begins today!’’ he said. ‘‘What is important is what we do today and tomorrow for Tunisia and all its children. We must work hand in hand.’’
The runoff election, which saw low turnout by registered voters, marks the culmination of a four-year-long rocky transition to democracy, with parliamentary elections in October and the first round of presidential elections a month later.
While the moderate Islamist party Ennahda dominated politics immediately after the revolution in 2011, they were unable to address the serious economic and political challenges in the country, including terrorist attacks. Essebsi created Nida Tunis, a collection of former regime officials, businessmen, and trade unionists, to oppose the Islamists and to restore the ‘‘prestige of state,’’ which he said had suffered after the revolution.
There are fears that Essebsi’s domination over the executive and legislative branches of the government could result in a return to the country’s old authoritarian ways — an argument Marzouki attempted to push in his campaign. In the end, however, Tunisians appear to have desired a return to stability and normalcy after the years of revolutionary turmoil.
‘‘Essebsi, thanks to his political experience and international ties as well as his program, can get the country out of this mess,’’ said Mehrez Rakkez, a lawyer who voted in the lower income neighborhood of Kram. He described Marzouki’s three years as interim president as a disaster and said the vote was a choice between ‘‘life and death.’’
In nearly all countries swept by pro-democracy uprisings since the Arab Spring, there has been a some backlash since the first heady days, including government crackdowns. In Tunisia, however, the backlash has remained within the legal framework of the transition.
The Nida Tunis coalition declared victory almost immediately after the polls closed Sunday and its celebrations had already begun at the party headquarters. In contrast to the almost 70 percent turnout for the first round of the presidential election and the legislative balloting, the official election authority said only 56 percent of Tunisia’s 5.3 million voters cast ballots on Sunday.
Credit: Bostonglobe.com; Photo credit: Aljazeera