Tunisians will vote for their next president on Sunday in the most unpredictable election of its short experience of democracy, a contest with no overwhelming front-runner at a time of economic angst.
Ballot boxes and security personnel were deployed to polling stations across Tunisia on Saturday.
The boxes were loaded onto military trucks and transported across the capital via special routes where they will be locked inside polling stations,
Tunisia’s revolution in 2010 began with the self-immolation of a desperate vegetable seller, then mass protests that forced strongman ruler Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali to seek exile in Saudi Arabia and soon spread across the Arab world.
Eight years on, Sunday’s highly competitive, wide open election shows how Tunisia’s path to democracy has run smoother than in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen or Bahrain, where people attempted to follow its example in throwing off autocratic rule.
Though Sunday’s vote is unlikely to produce a clear winner, with the two top candidates to hold a run-off if none of them win an outright majority, it will still influence a parliamentary election on October 6.
