Kaïs Saïed’s first response to his election win has been to thank your Tunisians for turning a new page in the country’s history.

Saïed says that in the only democracy to have emerged from the 2011 Arab Spring confidence must be renewed between the people and their rulers.

Nabl Karoui says he’ll wait until the  electoral commission officially calls the results today  before deciding whether to contest the outcome.

The millionaire businessman and philanthropist spent all but the last four days of the campaign in jail awaiting trial on tax evasion  and money laundering charges.

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With  26 candidates in the field it is unlikely anyone will emerge with more than fifty percent support.

So a run off is likely by early November.

Candidates in tomorrow’s race include a prime minister,  a defense minister and a former president.

The pollsters favorite is a television mogul in jail awaiting trial on tax evasion and money laundering charges,

The winner, now or in November, will have  to deal with economic stagnation, ever-present security threats and political instability.

The election is an acid test for the country where the Arab spring began more than eight years ago.

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Facing charges of tax evasion and money laundering, he is favoured to win more  votes than the 25 other candidates in the race.

It’s unlikely Nabil Karoui will win an outright majority to succeed the late President Beji Caid Essebsi who died in July.

The question is whether he will face trial, on what his supporters insist are politically motivated charges, before the run-off  that will follow  next month’s parliamentary election.

Karoui has gone on hunger strike demanding that he be released to cast his ballot.

This all adds confusion and tension in the only democracy to have emerged from the  Arab Spring eight years ago.

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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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Nabil Karoui is one of the favorites in the field of 26 candidates.

Nabil Karoui prefers to present himself as a political outsider.

But that does not include campaigning from a jail cell where he has been since his arrest on August 23 to face charges of tax evasion and money laundering.

Tunisia’s electoral commission says he can run as long as he’s not convicted.

Karoui says he innocent and the charges he faces are politically inspired.

his supporters say his being in jail has not eroded his popularity as a philanthropist.

His  Nessma television channel has been barred from covering the election campaign.

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