If figures released by Tunisia’s electoral commission on Monday are anything to go by, academic Kaies Saïed and businessman Nabil Karoui of the Qalb Tounès Party are poised for a presidential election dogfight following Sunday’s vote.
Saïed and Karoui polled 18.9 percent and 15.0 percent of the votes respectively, the Independent Supreme Electoral Commission (ISIE) said with 40 percent of the results released so far.
If the trend holds, the second round will have to pit two atypical candidates against each other.
Kaïs Saïed is an academic without a political party, but known for his criticism of the country’s governance system, who held no meetings or press conferences.
On the other hand, Nabil Karoui, 56, imprisoned since August 23 for alleged money-laundering and tax fraud, campaigned from the confines of his cell.
According to the national electoral body, which continues to supervise the counting of votes, Abdelfattah Mourou is nestled in third place with 13.1 percent, followed by independent candidate Abdelkarim Zbidi, who obtained 9.9 percent of the votes.
Prime Minister Youssef Chahed of the Tahya Tounès Party and Lotfi Mraihi of the Republican People’s Union bagged 7.2 percent and 7 percent and are fifth and sixth respectively.
The other 20 contenders, including two who withdrew from the race last Friday, find themselves with percentages ranging from 0 to 6 percent.
The turnout reached 45.02 percent, according to the president of ISIE, Nabil Baffoun, who indicates that this figure stands at 19.7 percent for Tunisians based abroad.
RBS/te/lb/as/APA