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A university professor without charisma or political structure, without a program or just campaigning has won in the first round of the Tunisian presidential elections, held on Sunday, with 18.4% of the vote. Kais Saied will face second-round media mogul Nabil Karui , who won 15.8% of popular support despite being in prison since August 23 for money laundering and tax fraud.

There is still no set date for the contest between the two anti-system candidates, who have swept the Tunisian electoral landscape. According to the official results released on Tuesday by the Independent Superior Instance for Elections (ISIE), Abdelfatah Moru , the candidate of the moderate Islamist party in Nahda - the best structured and organized formation in the country - was in third place (12.8% ), confirming the wear and tear of the party, majority in Parliament and key to the formation of governments since 2011. The centrist and liberal camp has also garnered ridiculous figures. The participation, which has reached only 49%, is another fact that Tunisian politicians must study, as it reaffirms the disaffection of the electorate more than eight years after the fall of the dictatorship.

"A legal revolution"

Without even noise - Tunisians joke that he has barely spent coffee and a packet of tobacco on his election campaign - Saied has given the surprise. "The voters have left a clear message. They have made a legal revolution, a revolution within the framework of the Constitution," he says in an interview with Afp after knowing his victory. University professor and constitutionalist expert, this 61-year-old independent is conservative in his political approaches . Although he boasts of having no program, he advocates modifying the political system: "We need a new political-administrative organization, anchored in local democracy, in which the base is the local councils with revocable elected members during their term," he explains.

Saied favors the death penalty and opposes equalizing the right of inheritance between men and women (according to current Tunisian law, females inherit half as much as men, following a Koranic principle). Inheritance is the last battlefield of Tunisian civil society that made the revolution. His stupid attitude and his way of expressing himself, in classical Arabic, have earned Saied the nickname 'Robocop'.

At a press conference after the announcement of the official result, Saied has ruled out an alliance with other parties on Tuesday . "There is no alliance between political parties or with any party or coalition; what there is is a project, whoever wants to join is free to do so," said Afp. "Tunisians have written a brilliant new page in the history of Tunisia," said Reuters.

The rival of the austere professor is, if Justice does not prevent it, the 'Tunisian Berlusconi'. Currently in prison, Nabil Karui (56 years old) has not been able to campaign, although the ISIE authorized his candidacy. Its president, Nabil Bafun, announced Tuesday that if he is convicted before the second round is held, he will be expelled from the electoral race and the third classified, the En Nahda aspirant, would have the option to dispute it . The situation is unprecedented in Tunisia. Karui has presented himself as a candidate against the elites of power, despite being part of it. Owner of the television channel Nessma TV -participated by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi-, he is a rich entrepreneur who has taken advantage of his charitable foundation to present himself as the 'candidate of the poor'.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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