Current Affairs-Moncef Marzouki elected as Tunisian President

Moncef Marzouki elected as Tunisian President

In Tunisia, Moncef Marzouki has been elected by interim Parliament as the new President of the country. Soon after his election, Marzouki said he would work for Tunisia taking the people together.

Marzouki was elected with 153 votes in the 217-member constituent assembly. He will serve for a year until the Constitution is re-written and new elections are held.

Marzouki is respected by many Tunisians for his opposition to the autocratic Ben Ali. He was imprisoned and then exiled for opposing former President Ben Ali. Analysts say as the President, he would be a secularist counterweight to the moderate Islamist party Ennahda which is now Tunisia’s dominant political force.

Tunisia became the birth-place of the Arab Spring uprisings in January when protests forced Ben Ali, in power for more than 23 years, to flee to Saudi Arabia.