Tunis – Newly elected Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi will be
sworn in Wednesday at a ceremony in parliament, which is dominated by
his anti-Islamist Nidaa Tounes party, officials said.
The election of Essebsi, an 88-year-old who served under previous
regimes, is seen as a landmark for the birthplace of the Arab Spring
that toppled dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali four years ago.
His victory over incumbent Moncef Marzouki rounded off Tunisia’s
transition to democracy and has won praise from Western leaders.
On Monday, the electoral committee confirmed that Essebsi took 55.68% of the vote in a 21 December run-off against Marzouki.
After Essebsi is sworn in, Marzouki will formally hand over power to
him at the presidential palace in Carthage, a suburb of Tunis.
Essebsi, an anti-Islamist lawer, has insisted that Tunisia had
definitely turned a page on the past and would look to the future rather
than the past.
But Marzouki, a 69-year-old former rights activists, said he was
creating a new movement to prevent the North African nation sliding back
into authoritarian rule.
Marzouki was installed as president by the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, which was in power after the revolution.
Ennahda came second in the October parliamentary polls and has not ruled out joining a governing coalition.
The presidential vote was the first time Tunisians have freely elected their head of state since independence in 1956.
– AFP
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