An official under Tunisia’s former hardline ruler Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali has come out on top in the country’s first free presidential election.<br /><br />Beji Caid Essebsi, an 87-year-old anti-Islamist leader, won 39.46% of Sunday’s vote, beating incumbent interim President Moncef Marzouki, who scored 33.43%.<br /><br />The preliminary results mean a second round run-off will be held before the end of December, as no candidate reached the overall majority needed.<br /><br />Essebsi heads the secularist party Nidaa Tounes which won October’s parliamentary election in Tunisia, beating the Islamist party Ennahda, which led Tunisia’s last government. It did not field a candidate in the presidential poll.<br /><br />Sunday’s vote, judged transparent by EU monitors, is being hailed as the final step in Tunisia’s transition to full democracy following the 2011 revolution that ousted long-time ruler Ben Ali.
