DHAAK: Less than a month after electing a new parliament, Tunisians will vote Sunday in their first-ever open democratic presidential election, completing a tumultuous democratic transition begun with their revolution nearly four years ago.

The front-runner, Beji Qaid Al Sebsi, who turns 88 next week, leads a field of 27 candidates that includes former dissidents and political prisoners, former officials from the dictatorship, a millionaire football boss, and a female magistrate - the only woman in the race.

Al Sebsi has promised to restore the authority of the state and stability to a country that has struggled with economic malaise and a rise in Islamist terrorism since the overthrow of the autocratic president, Zine Al Abidine Bin Ali.

For many Tunisians, weary of two years of sometimes chaotic rule by the country’s Islamist party, Al Nahda, that followed the revolution, Al Sebsi is seen as a reassuring figure.

‘In this period we need him, his capacity and his expertise,’ said Tarek Bin Sulaimain, a retired printer, shouting over the cheers at a rally in Tunis, gulfnews reports.

‘He is the one who created the political balance. If not for him, things would have been worse.’

Al Sebsi is riding the success of his secular two-year-old party, Nida Tunis (Call for Tunisia), which gained the most seats in the legislative elections in October and will lead a coalition government.

BDST: 1733 HRS, NOV 22, 2014