Veteran human rights campaigner Moncef Marzouki was Monday elected president of Tunisia by the country's assembly, after winning the support of the Islamist party Ennahda, dpa reported.
Marzouki, leader of the left-wing Congress for the Republic, which came second behind Ennahda in October's assembly elections, was elected with 153 votes in the 217-seat constituent assembly. Three members voted against him, while 44 abstained. Opposition parties had put forward several nominees for president, but their candidacies were declared invalid.
Marzouki, a 66-year-old doctor and human rights activist, was seen as a shoo-in for the job after Ennahda, the CPR and another left-wing party, Ettakatol, struck a deal to share power following the elections.
Under the deal, Ettakatol leader Mustafa Ben Jaafar became president of the assembly and Marzouki became president.
He is in turn expected to appoint Ennahda secretary general Hammadi Jebali as prime minister. They will be the country's most powerful politicians for the next year, until new elections are held under a new constitution.
Marzouki's ascension to the presidency comes nearly a year to the day since the start of the revolution that ousted autocratic president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
A former president of the Tunisian League for Human Rights, Marzouki was an outspoken critic of Ben Ali's regime, who spent time in prison for his political activities before going into exile in France.
He returned to Tunisia in January shortly after Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia, following a month of mass protests that began in the central town of Sidi Bouzid a year ago this week.
On December 17, Mohamed Bouazizi, a fruit seller, set himself alight in front of a government building to protest repeated harassment by the police.
His act sparked a wave of pro-democracy protests which inspired uprisings throughout the Arab world.
Ennahda, a party that styles itself on Turkey's ruling Justice and Development party and whose members were also persecuted by Ben Ali's secular regime, emerged as the main political winner of the uprising.
The party has the lion's share of seats in the assembly, which is tasked with writing a new constitution over the next year.
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