(Tunis) – Tunisia elected an independent former law professor as its new president, after Kais Saied, 61, who ran a low-key volunteer-based campaign, won a landslide victory with 72.7 per cent of the vote against his opponent, TV magnate and businessman Nabil Karoui, on 27.3 per cent.
With a turnout of 55 per cent, Sunday’s election significantly exceeded last week’s parliamentary election, which saw a 41 per cent turnout.
Saied’s landslide translates into 2.7 million votes, close to what the whole of Tunisia’s 217-member parliament got when 2.8 million registered voters elected it last week and six times the votes received by the Islamist Ennahda Movement, the largest political party in parliament.
It also surpasses the 1.7 million votes received by Beji Caid Essebsi, who won the country’s first free presidential elections in 2014.