– Mudslinging during the campaign –
A first round on November 23 saw Essebsi win 39 percent of the vote, six percentage points ahead of Marzouki, a 69-year-old former rights activist installed by parliament two months after December 2011 polls.
Nidaa Tounes won parliamentary polls in October, making Essebsi favourite to be the next president, but with powers curbed under constitutional amendments to guard against a return to dictatorship.
The campaign was marked by mudslinging, with Essebsi refusing to take part in a debate with Marzouki, claiming his opponent was “extremist”.
Essebsi insists that Marzouki represents the Islamists, charging that they had “ruined” the country since the 2011 revolution which toppled veteran ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and sparked the Arab Spring.
Marzouki in turn accused Essebsi, who served as a senior official in previous Tunisian regimes, of wanting to restore the old guard deposed in the revolution.
After polling closed, Essebsi said in an indirect message to his rival: “The future obliges us to work together for Tunisia.”
Earlier Marzouki had said: “The rules of the democratic game require that each of us accepts the outcome of the vote in a sporting spirit.”
– ‘The dictatorship is over’ –
Voters said they regretted the lack of restraint shown by candidates during campaigning, but said they believed Tunisia was on the path to democracy.
“Our candidates and their policies perhaps aren’t the best but we’re moving forward — the dictatorship is over,” said shopkeeper Mohammed Taieb.
In an Internet video posted on Wednesday, jihadists claimed the 2013 murder of two secular politicians that plunged Tunisia into crisis, and warned of more killings of politicians and security forces.
The murders had threatened to derail Tunisia’s post-Arab Spring transition until a compromise government was formed in January this year.
Defence ministry spokesman Belhassan Oueslati said he did not believe jihadists were behind Sunday’s pre-dawn attack.
“The vigilance of the soldiers and the swiftness of their response thwarted this operation and led to the death of a man armed with a hunting rifle and the arrest of three suspects,” Oueslati told AFP.
“Generally, the terrorists don’t use hunting rifles.”
Tunisia also faces major economic challenges.
Its economy is struggling to recover from the upheaval of the revolution, and there are fears of widespread joblessness causing social unrest.
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