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The contest is between two outsiders who beat off the heavyweight establishment figures among the two dozen other contestant.

Conservative lawyer Kaïs Saïed and television mogul Nabil Karoui are the choice of an electorate disillusioned with the performance of the traditional leaders.

Neither managed anything near an outright win, however. Saïed won  18.4% of the vote with Karoui palming 15.6%

In parliamentary elections last week, voters gave the nod to the moderate Islamist Ennahda Party and Karoui’s Qalb Tounes – the Heart of Tunisia.

On a turnout of only 42% of the seven million registered voters, Ennahda won 52 of the 217 parliamentary seats well short of a majority.

It has pledged not to enter into an alliance with  Qalb Tounes so there will be some interesting coalition buildingsin the weeks ahead.

 Karoui was released on bail last week, having been jailed since August 27 to face charges of tax evasion and money laundering.

It was feared his incarceration would jeopardize the crediblity of  the elections which , according to local and international observers, underpinned the Tunisian democracy.

It is not clear whether 54-year-old Karoui will , contest the outcome of the election in which he had barely two days to campaign.

The populist and charismatic self-made businessman has been dubbed Karoui Macaroni because of the money and food he has doled out to Tunisians – 15% of whom live below the poverty line.

Karoui recognized his strength lies attracting the the poor and the one fifth of Tunisians who are feeling the pinch unemployment, rising prices and a stagnating economy.

His campaign suffered a blow when it merged he had bought the services of a Canadian lobbyist  company to secure meeting with US President Donald Trump and others.

It is illegal under Tunisian  law to get help or finance from abroad.

To compound matters the chief executive of the lobbyist group is a former Israel intelligence operative

The head of the observer team from the Johannesburg-based Electoral Commission for a Sustainable Democracy in Africa, former Mauritian president Cassam Uteem,  commended the orderliness of the elections but called, in the name of fairness,  for Karoui to be allowed to participate fully.

Saïed also expressed disquiet about his opponent being jailed. He opted against taking  advantage of this and declined to campaign for the run-off poll.

The 62 year-old, who speaks classical Arabic, has the support of Ennahda.

The backing of that party’s machine and funding from countries like Qatar and Saudi Arabia will stand him on good stead.

In supporting a man who rejects the status quo, Tunsians have a man who favor the return of the death penalty.

He says his wife will not become first lady if he is elected and that he will continue to live in his moderate home rather than move into the presidential palace. 

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It hoping the by controlling the legislature it will overcome the disappointment of having its leader beaten in the presidential race.

The Ennahda Party expects it vast organization to prevail in Sunday’s poll.

Its major rival, the Nabil Tounes alliance of the late President Beji Caid Essebsi, who died in office last July, has virtually disintegrated.

Independents are expected to make a strong showing on Sunday, as they did in the first round of the Presidential election last month.

The second round of that contest, between conservative lawyer Kaïs Saïed and television mogul Nabil Karoui, currently jailed and awaiting trial on tax evasion and money laundering charges, will be on October 13. 

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The country’s appeal court will today consider another  bid by television mogul Nabil Karoui to be given bail so he can vote on Sunday.

Tunisia’s parliament passed a bill that as a television station owner Nabil Karoui is ineligible to run as president.

But the late President Beji Caid Essebsi refused to sign off  and make it law.

Karoui declared his candidature in May, two months before Essebsi’s death. 

Should he win the election and then be found guilty on charges of tax evasion and money laundering, for which he is being held,  he would be disqualified from holding office.

This would create a political crisis in the fledgling democracy.

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The bustling capital of this country that choses at will whether to be Arab, African or Mediterranean has changed hearteningly.

Even under the dictator Ben Ali, Tunis had an indubitable buoyancy.

But that is because the man who deposed the aging independence President Habib Bourgiba in what is called a medical coup wanted Tunisia be different from its bigger, problematic neighbours Algeria to the west and Libya to the east.

So much so, in fact that he put policemen at every motorway exit  and on every train and bus to ensure order.

He wielded an iron rod over the media, which was placed 146th out 172 countries on the press freedom index, making it report only sunshine and progress in Tunisia.

Ben Ali’s  police state could not withstand the Arab Spring which began in Tunis in 2011 when a fruit seller Mohammed Bouzizi immolated himself after being bullied by the police.

That revolution brought change to Egypt, Syria ,Iraq, Bahrain  and Libya among others. 

But only Tunisia emerged as a democracy. 

It ranks 72nd on the latest press freedom index.

Ben Ali’s  departure caused  a difficult transition as Islamist fought secularists.

A non governmental organization that sought to negotiate an end to this conflict won the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize.

Beji Caid Essebsi won the first democratic election in 2014.

At 92, he wasn’t going to stand again in elections scheduled for November.

That Presidential poll has been expedited following Essebsi’s death in July.

No fewer than 26 candidates have emerged. Only two of them are women.

Two others appear on the billboards vying for public attention, but not at the hustings.

Television mogul Nabil Karoui is in jail awaiting trial on tax evasion and money laundering charges. Salim Riahi is in exile.

Essebsi’s Nabil Tounes coalition, set up to oppose the Islamist Ennahda Party, has disintegrated.

Sunday’s election is by all measures too close to call. 

Young people say the candidates do not represent their aspirations for a country they maintain is no long the African success story.

Unemployment has dropped slightly to15,3%.

There are several stoppages and strikes about the rising prices.

In the capital Tunis, most of the shops advertise dramatic sales to keep their doors open

The state of the nation becomes more apparent travelling south to the industrial port city of Gabes where I will be observing the voting on Sunday.

Heading south along the coastal highway from Tunis one passes Sousse where 38 British holiday makers were killed in a 2055 a terror attack that took Tunisia off the tourist map for the next three years.

Security is tighter but there were two suicide bombing in June and there have been recent terrorist attacks on Tunisia western border with Algeria

Visitors have started returning to this country within sight of Europe – but  not yet enough to return tourism to its place as Tunisia’s second more lucrative foreign currency earner.

Top place remains agriculture as one sees with endless kilometers  of olive trees around Sfax.

But as one approaches the Libyan border, the profusion of clandestine petrol sellers is evidence of the desperate need to make a quick buck.

Five-liter Plastic containers carrying the potentially explosive liquid, purloined from tankers crossing from Libya, line the roadside. 

Lethal accidents abound. The authorities appear unable to stop it.

 Ends

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Economic and security problems have dogged the Mediterranean country squeezed between Algeria and Libya .

The Niba Tounes coalition of the late President Beji Caid Essebsi, whose death in July forced the election earlier than planned, has effectively disintegrated.

So the only relatively safe bet in this field of 26 candidates is that no-one will  emerge as an outright winner.

This will necessitate a second round between the two frontrunners by early November.

That will be after parliamentary elections that will shape the future of country that historically punches above its weight  in the African, Arab and Mediterranean worlds. 

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But there have been two empty spaces left on the television stage – one for a candidate who is in jail awaiting trial and another for a presidential hopeful who is in exile.

Tunisia is used to breaking now ground in the North African and Arab world.

The television debates give an American flavour to the race to succeed President Bejii Caid Essebsi who died in July.

They’re being covered by 11 television channels and  20 radio stations that spearheaded  the 2011 Arab Spring that began in Tunisia.

Campaigning is reaching fever pitch despite some security fears on the country’s western border with Algeria where there has been a wave of violence by terror groups. 

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It’s raised questions about how the de facto ruler of the kingdom will be received at the G20 summit in Argentina this weekend.

Tunisian protestors displayed  posters showing Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman wielding a chain saw.

It’s a reference to the dismemberment of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi after he was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul six weeks ago.

They also depicted Tunsian President Beji Caid Essebsi pouring cleansing water on the blood-stained hands of the prince, who is said to have ordered the killing.

The Tunsians demonstrations shocked the Saudi authorities. On his first foreign trip since the killing of Khashoggi, the prince was well received in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirate and Egypt.  

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Faced with a furious  response from the North Africa country, the Gulf state admits it might involve fake identities and the scare is over.

Tunisia President Beji Caid Essebsi says the rights of women from his country cannot be violated, whatever the justification.

UAE presidential spokesman Said Garrach says they closed their border to Tunisian women having received information that Jihadis returning from Syria and Iraq were planning to use Tunisian women for jiahidi attacks in the Gulf state.

Tunisia stopped Emirate air flights between Tunis and the Gulf.

The UAE says the scare is over and asserts they have the highest regard for Tunisian women.

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Zuma will be in neighbouring Algeria for a bi-national commission meeting starting on Monday.

Tunisian ambassador Mohamed Fadhel Ayari expresses the wish President Jacob Zuma will join the march against terrorism and for civilisation.

He tells guests at his national day reception in Pretoria that Tunisia is shocked by the killing of 20 tourists by terrorists at the Barda Museum in Tunis last week.

Ayari says the attack should not distract from the reality that Tunisia has undergone a democratic transformation.

He invited his guests to visit Tunisia which relies heavily on its tourism industry.

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