Kais Saied, Nabil Karoui Claim 1st Round Victory in Tunisian Polls

Tunisian candidates Kais Saied and Nabil Karoui claimed to have won through to a runoff in the presidential elections, according to projections by local polling firm Sigma Conseil.

Kais Saied, a 61-year-old law professor and an expert on constitutional affairs, got the highest number of votes (19.5%), followed by jailed candidate Nabil Karoui, representing Qalb Tounes (the Heart of Tunisia) party, who won (15.5%) of votes.

Ennahda Movement candidate Abdel Fattah Moro was ranked the third with 11.0% of votes while candidate Abdul Karim al-Zubaidi, received 9.4% of the votes.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, head of Tahya Tounes party, was ranked fifth with 7.5% of votes.

Noteworthy, Polling stations opened for Tunisian voters on Sunday morning to cast their ballots in the country’s second post-revolutionary presidential election.

The Tunisian voters went to the polling stations to select  a new president from among 26 candidates.

The Tunisian Interior Ministry announced the deployment of about 70,000 national security personnel throughout the country, to secure election process, and the polling stations.

1,200 employees were assigned by Tunisia’s Independent Higher Authority for Elections (ISIE) to monitor the electoral campaigns.

The first round of the presidential election was scheduled on November 17, but due to the death of Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi on July 25, the ISIE decided to postpone it.