Essebsi wins first round of Tunisian presidential election

Tunisian secularist leader Beji Caid Essebsi beat incumbent President Moncef Marzouki in the first round of landmark presidential elections, but the two men will have to meet again in a December run-off, early results show.

Essebsi, from the Nidaa Tounes party, got 39.46% in Sunday's poll, short of the needed overall majority but ahead of Marzouki, who got 33.4%, according to the figures.

Candidate Hamma Hammami, the leader of Tunisia's Popular Front, came in third with only seven percent of the votes.

The campaigns for the run-off vote for the presidency have already kicked off between Essebsi, a former official under the toppled ruler Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, and Marzouki, who is popular amongst Islamists.

Essebsi is a former Ben Ali official and Marzouki had depicted the race as a chance for voters to reject the old guard.

More than three years since overthrowing Ben Ali's one-party rule, Tunisia adopted a new constitution, and rival secularists and Islamist parties have largely avoided the turmoil that has plagued other Arab states swept by popular revolts.