Tunisia eligible voters were invited to cast ballots on Sunday when the Presidential elections kicks off, with 26 candidates racing for the job.
President Beji Caid Essebsi died in late July, three months before his mandate was due to end. The speaker of parliament was sworn in as interim leader shortly thereafter, and the electoral commission brought forward the date for the presidential election.
The elections come amid political instability and economic stagnation that have plagued the country since it democratized in 2011.
According to media reports, a number of prominent figures run for the position with none of them seem as frontrunner. The nominees including Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, Defence Minister Abdelkarim Zbidi, jailed media mogul Nabil Karoui and Abdelfattah Mourou, the first presidential candidate put forward by the Islamist party Ennahdha.
The latest pre-election surveys have shown jailed media magnate Nabil Karoui with a narrow lead over his rivals. The owner of Nessma TV, one of the country's most popular television stations, was arrested in late August on money laundering and tax evasion charges. The electoral commission said Karoui remains a candidate unless convicted.
On another hand, the voting is aspired to handle the economic issue, as the country’s national debt amounts to more than 70 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), a significant increase compared with the pre-revolution level of 40 percent.
Successive governments in Tunisia have failed to improve an unemployment rate that hovers above 15 percent, and reaches more than 30 percent in some remote regions.
Among the other challenges that will face the new president is the terrorist attacks from time to time. Attacks on popular tourist sites in 2015 led to a sharp decline in the number of visitor arrivals, devastating a vital sector for the economy.
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