Tunisians vote in landmark presidential run-off election

Tunisians voted on Sunday in a presidential run-off election that completes the country's transition to full democracy nearly four years after an uprising which ousted autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali.

With a new progressive constitution and a full parliament elected in October, Tunisia is hailed as an example of democratic change for a region still struggling with the aftermath of the 2011 Arab Spring revolts.

The North African nation avoided the bitter post-revolt divisions troubling Libya and Egypt, but Sunday's election is between a former Ben Ali official and the incumbent who claims to defend the legacy of the 2011 revolution.

Frontrunner Beji Caid Essebsi, a former parliament speaker under Ben Ali, won 39 per cent of votes in the first round of voting in November with current president Moncef Marzouki taking 33 per cent of the ballots.

Polling opened at 8am local time (7am Irish time) with a heavy security presence at voting stations around the capital Tunis.

Official preliminary results were not expected until Monday.

Overnight one gunman was killed and three arrested after they opened fire on a polling station in the central Kairouan governorate, a defence ministry official said.

Mr Essebsi (88) dismisses critics who say he would mark a return of the old regime stalwarts. He says he is the technocrat Tunisia needs after three messy years of the Islamist-led coalition government that followed the revolt.

Mr Marzouki (69) is a former activist during the Ben Ali era who has painted an Essebsi presidency as a setback for the “Jasmine Revolution” that forced the former leader to flee into exile.

“The revolution has to continue. Tunisia is a leader in democracy in the Arab world, but the return of the old regime could put an end to that model,” Mr Marzouki said voting in the coastal town of Sousse.

Yet many Tunisians tie Mr Marzouki’s own presidency to the Islamist party’s government and the mistakes opponents said it made in controlling influence of hardline Islamists in one of the Arab world’s most secular countries.

Reuters