TUNIS: Tunisians voted on Sunday in their first presidential election since the 2011 revolution that sparked the Arab Spring, in a ballot set to round off an often fraught transition to democracy.

The favourite among 27 candidates was former premier Beji Caid Essebsi, an 87-year-old veteran whose anti-Islamist Nidaa Tounes party won a parliamentary election last month.

Essebsi, “according to preliminary estimates, is ahead and has a large lead”, his campaign manager Mohsen Marzouk told reporters.

The frontrunner was “not far short” of the absolute majority needed to win outright, but a second round was likely, Marzouk added.

A run-off vote will be held at the end of December if there is no outright winner. The result will be known by Wednesday.

Other candidates included outgoing President Moncef Marzouki, several ministers who served under ousted dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, leftwinger Hamma Hammami, business magnate Slim Riahi and a lone woman, magistrate Kalthoum Kannou.

Whatever the outcome, many Tunisians saw the election as a milestone in the North African country, where for the first time they could freely choose their president.

“This election is very important. It’s the culmination of the revolution and something that we really should not pass up,” said an electoral observer who gave his name only as Moez.

Bechir Yahyaoui could hardly control his emotions as he voted in the Tunis district of Hay el-Khadhra, saying that for once he was “voting for who I want, with no pressure, no bribes”.

“Before (under Ben Ali) you had to go and vote, regardless of the outcome.

This time the election is free and transparent,” he said.

Some 5.3 million people were eligible to vote, with tens of thousands of police and troops deployed to guarantee security amid fears Islamist militants might seek to disrupt polling day.HISTORIC DAY: Polling stations opened at 0700 GMT and closed at 1700 GMT, but voting was restricted to just five hours in about 50 localities near the Algerian border, where armed groups are active.

Turnout was estimated at nearly 58 per cent an hour and a half before polling ended. Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa hailed the vote.

“It’s a historic day, the first presidential election in Tunisia held under advanced democratic norms,” he said. “God willing, it will be a great festival of democracy.”

Published in Dawn, November 24th , 2014