Polls closed in Tunisia at 6 pm (0500 GMT) on Sunday, after the end of the poll in the early presidential elections. Voter turnout reached 35% until 5 pm, and may rise to 45%.

The head of the Independent Electoral Commission, Nabil Bafoun, called on young voters earlier to go to the polling stations, when turnout recorded very low rates, did not exceed 27.8% by 3 pm.

According to reliable sources, quoted by the Anatolian Agency, the initial voting indicators showed the progress of the candidate of the "Heart of Tunisia" party, Nabil Karoui, arrested on charges of financial corruption, independent candidate Qais Said, and the candidate of Ennahda Abdel Fattah Moro, and Defense Minister Abdel Karim Zubeidi.

The Election Commission has allocated 4,564 polling stations, with 13,000 polling stations inside the country, while 304 polling stations were opened abroad, including 384 polling stations in 46 countries.

The number of registered voters abroad 384 thousand voters and voters, while the number of their counterparts at home seven million.

Elderly were dominant among voters (Reuters)

Feverish competition
After the announcement of two candidates to withdraw from the presidential race in favor of one of the candidates, is already competing in Sunday's elections 24 candidates in the first round of the ballot, to win the highest position in the country.

The election date was advanced after the death of President Essebsi in late July.

The president of Tunisia has direct control over foreign and defense policy, while most of the other files are handled by the prime minister, chosen by parliament. Because of this limited role, many candidates confirmed their security policies.

In a related context, the correspondent of Al-Jazeera in Tunisia, Amal and Nass, said that the authorities supervising the elections have taken extraordinary measures due to the coincidence of the polling day with the second day of the electoral campaign for the legislative elections, in order to prevent overlap between the two campaigns, and to prevent the use of campaigns of candidates for legislative elections to publicize candidates for the presidential elections.