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UPDATE 1-Voting starts in Tunisian presidential election

Sun, 15th Sep 2019 08:23

* Tunisia chose democracy after 2011 revolution

* Economic problems have disillusioned many

* Two candidates with most votes will hold run-off(Recasts with slow voting)

By Tarek Amara and Angus McDowall

TUNIS, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Tunisia's electoral commissionurged young people to head to the polls on Sunday after slowvoting for much of the day in a presidential race that featuresa media tycoon standing while in detention.

With more than two dozen candidates on the ballot paper, nooverwhelming favourite had emerged before voting began, makingit the most unpredictable election in Tunisia's brief history ofdemocracy.

After years of economic troubles including high unemploymentand inflation, many Tunisians have voiced frustration over theirgovernment's inability to improve living standards.

At the polling booths on Sunday, the candidate voters talkedabout most frequently to Reuters journalists was the mediamagnate, Nabil Karoui, who has been in detention since lastmonth on charges of tax evasion and money laundering.

"I call on young people and all Tunisians to leave homes andexercise their electoral right," said electoral commission headNabil Baffoun.

He said that by 3pm turnout stood only at 27.8%. In the 2014election, turnout was higher than 50% in the presidential vote.

While foreign attention, especially in Arab countries, isfocused on the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, Tunisians havebeen engrossed by the fate of Karoui.

A court on Friday ruled he must stay in detention after hisarrest last month on the three-year-old charges brought by atransparency watchdog, and which he denies. His supporters sayhe has been silenced.

Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, as well as two former primeministers, a former president and the defence minister are alsostanding. Two of the 26 candidates have withdrawn in recent daysto support a rival, though their names still appear on theballots.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara and Angus McDowall; additionalreporting by Mohamed Argoubi; editing by Elaine Hardcastle andRaissa Kasolowsky)

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