Related: Tunisian Election
They restored the old regime?
"Former regime figure takes lead in vote for Tunisia’s presidency" by Bouazza Ben Bouazza, Associated Press November 24, 2014
TUNIS — A veteran politician from the previous regime who ran on a platform of restoring the prestige of the state took the lead in Tunisia’s first free presidential election Sunday, according to exit polls. But there will still probably be a runoff next month.
Then it was all for nothing, huh?
Beji Caid Essebsi, 87, replicated the success of his Nida Tunis party in last month’s legislative elections by taking 47 percent of the vote, with outgoing interim president Moncef Marzouki following with 27 percent, according to one polling company. Other polls gave similar figures, indicating that the two men will go head to head in a second round set for Dec. 28.
Marzouki’s staffers contested the polls, maintaining their candidate had the plurality. Official results are expected in the coming days. The electoral commission said 60 percent of the 5.3 million registered voters participated.
The vote appeared to be a choice between fears about security and a push to maintain the freedoms brought by their revolution, with Essebsi representing the stability of the old ways and Marzouki the fervor of the revolution.
The Tunisians chose "stability," huh?
The North African country’s transition has stayed on track, in sharp contrast to the upheavals brought by Arab Spring uprisings elsewhere in the region, including the brutal military coup in Egypt and the conflicts in Syria, Yemen, and Libya.
It's the lone bright spot in the Arab Spring(?).
Secretary of State John Kerry congratulated Tunisians for the vote, calling the nation’s transition ‘‘an inspiration to all those in the region and around the world.’’
Now I know it was a rig job!
It has not been easy for Tunisia. Social unrest, terrorist attacks, and high inflation have sullied the four years since the revolution, prompting voters to punish the moderate Islamists who first came to power.
‘‘The thing I’m worried most about for the future is terrorism. Right now, we don’t know who’s coming into the country, and this is a problem,’’ said Amira Judei, 21, who voted in the southern city of Kasserine, near the border with Algeria and a point of terrorist attacks.
But Judei said that ‘‘the most important priority is unemployment.’’ Tunisia’s revolution began in areas such as Kasserine in the impoverished south, and the nation’s 15 percent jobless rate nearly doubles when it comes to young people.
Out of the nearly two dozen candidates for the presidency, Essebsi clearly captured people’s yearning for a return to stability after the disorder of the last few years.
‘‘He is a veteran politician with experience that can ensure security and stability,’’ said Mouldi Cherni, a driver in Tunis’s Carthage suburb who voted for Essebsi. ‘‘The people are tired, life has grown expensive, and Tunisians don’t even have enough to make an ojja,’’ the local omelet favored by the poor.
The strikes, social unrest, and occasional political assassinations have kept away foreign investment and the economy foundered after the revolution as an Islamist-led coalition government struggled with the country’s problems.
Which, if you look at the larger picture, was part of the plan. Turn out stale dictators and replace them with fresh faces, or prove that Muslims are incapable of ruling themselves before overthrowing them.
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Some late votes:
"Militants kidnap, decapitate Tunisian guardsman" Associated Press December 02, 2014
TUNIS — Authorities on Monday found the decapitated body of a member of the National Guard who was kidnapped by militants in northwestern Tunisia, the Interior Ministry said.
Ministry spokesman Mohammed Ali Aroui told the state news agency that the body was found in El Kef province.
The man was stopped by militants Sunday night while he was driving with his brother in this rugged region near the Algerian border that has been the scene of terrorist activity. His brother was released, said Aroui.
Related: ISIS is in Tunisia
The regions along Algeria’s border have been the scene of several attacks on security services by militants.
The militant insurgency has been building in Tunisia, fueled in part by high inflation and unemployment.
An estimated 3,000 of Tunisia’s disaffected young people have flocked to fight with the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria — the most of any foreign country.
The country’s outgoing prime minister, Mehdi Jomaa, said last week that the incoming government should be a broad coalition so that it has the necessary support to implement difficult economic reforms.
What did I say about those elections?
A secular nationalist party, Nida Tunis, won the most seats in October’s parliamentary election on an anti-Islamist platform.
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