Old-guard insider wins Tunisian vote

TUNIS, Tunisia - In a triumph of the old guard, a former senior member of Tunisia's pre-revolution government has won the presidency, according to official preliminary results released Monday.

Though the results did not represent the full final count, Tunisia's election commission declared 88-year-old Beji Caid Essebsi the winner of Sunday's runoff vote. The news set off car-honking celebrations in the capital, Tunis, among his supporters.

The preliminary figures, echoing those of exit polls released soon after balloting ended Sunday, pointed to a more than 10-percentage-point disparity between Essebsi and his rival, Moncef Marzouki, 69, a former rights activist and the incumbent president. The election commission said Essebsi won nearly 55.7 percent to Marzouki's 44.3 percent.

Essebsi was aligned with the toppled government of Zine el Abidine ben Ali, who was pushed from office in the first of the regional uprisings that became collectively known as the Arab Spring. But whatever distaste voters may have felt over his serving as speaker of parliament under the former dictator, many voters expressed confidence in his ability to bring stability.

Tunisia is widely viewed as the prime success story among the Arab Spring countries, having agreed on a new constitution, staged peaceful parliamentary elections and seen a nonviolent handover of power by Islamists who had moved to the political fore in the wake of the uprising.

Sunday's vote, held after first-round balloting with fragmented support among a large field of candidates, was Tunisia's first free election since its independence from France in 1956.

But despite its steps toward an inclusive democracy, the North African country has been beset by economic woes, security fears and an simmering insurgency.