Tunisia’s presidential vote marks the end of a successful transition

Presidential elections set for next Sunday in Tunisia will put an end to a transition phase in the country that is proud of being the cradle of the Arab Spring and the one who was able to bring it to completion after an Islamist party won power and then was defeated by strictly democratic means.

The campaign, in which 25 candidates from parties of the right, center and left are competing, as well as independents, is the first to be held in a free and democratic way since former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was driven from power on January 14, 2011.

If no candidate reaches an absolute majority in the first round of polling on November 23, the two candidates receiving the most votes will head for a runoff on December 28.

The favorite to win the presidency is Beji Caid Essebsi, who is 88 years old. He is a political veteran who knows his way around the ministries of interior, defense and foreign affairs, all of which he headed at one time or another under Habib Bourguiba (195787) and Ben Ali (19872011).

In addition, Essebsi was the one who led the first phase of transition and organized the 2011 elections, which was won by the Islamist party AlNahda.

Essebsi founded the political movement of “NidahTunis” (Call for Tunisia) in 2012 with the aim of creating a secular alternative to political Islam in the country.

However, the coalition government between the Islamist AlNahda party, the secular Congress for the Republic, or CPR, and AlTakatol, failed to stem a wave of radical Islam unrest, terrorist attacks, and the assassinations of senior political and military figures.

The government coalition also failed to stem the economic crisis that it inherited from Ben Ali regime characterized by a sharp rise in consumer prices coupled with a historic decline in industrial investments that pushed up the unemployment rate.

The result was a landslide victory for the secularist NidahTunis party in last month’s legislative elections in which it took 86 out of the 217 seats contested, with its leader confirmed as the country’s likely next president.

AlNahda came second in last month’s legislative polls, capturing 69 seats, but decided not to field a presidential candiate of its own or to support a consensus candidate agreed on with other political forces.

The Islamist formation announced that it would leave to the discretion of its members the choice of candidate to vote for in the presidential elections.

Unofficially, however, the Islamists support Tunisia’s interim president, Moncef Marzouki, 69, who is running as an independent candidate.the radical AlTahrir party (Party of Liberation), Reda Belhaj, has alkso declared his support for Marzouki.

To his supporters, Marzouki represents a chance to prevent Essebsi from controlling the country’s three key institutions; parliament, government and the presidency.

Although the polarization between the two candidates, Essebsi and Marzouki, occupies the major talk shows, the other candidates in the presidential race have been well received by the public.

The other candidates include billionaire Slim Riahi, Hama Hamami, the leader of the Communist Workers Party of Tunisia, and the former director of the Central Bank of Tunisia, Mustafa Kamel Nabli.