Tunisia presidential runoff likely after 'historic' vote

Both leading candidates in Tunisia's first free presidential election since the 2011 revolution sparked the Arab Spring predicted a runoff as each claimed to be ahead after Sunday's vote.

The election is a milestone in the North African country where a popular uprising set off a chain of revolts that saw several Arab dictators toppled by citizens demanding democratic reform.

The campaign manager for incumbent Moncef Marzouki said he is neck and neck with Beji Caid Essebsi, the pre-polling favourite among 27 candidates vying for the top job.

"At the worst we are even but at best we're between two and four percent ahead," Adnene Mancer told reporters after polling closed. "Our chances are good as we go into a runoff" next month, he said.

But the camp of Essebsi, an 87-year-old former premier whose anti-Islamist Nidaa Tounes party won October parliamentary polls, said he was ahead.

Essebsi, "according to preliminary estimates, is ahead and has a large lead", his campaign manager Mohsen Marzouk told journalists.

But despite Essebsi being "not far short" of the absolute majority needed to win outright, a second round was likely, Marzouk added.

Exit polls conducted by a private organisation showed that Essebsi had clinched 47.8 percent of the vote with Marzouki trailing at 26.9 percent, a state television report said.

Official results from what Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa called a "historic day" will be known by Nov. 26
and a runoff will be held at the end of December if there is no outright winner.

Despite Tunisia's march to democracy being fraught by crisis, it has still won international plaudits for not slipping into the post-revolution chaos seen by other Arab Spring states, namely...