Campaigning for Tunisia’s presidential election has kicked off with 27 candidates including the outgoing head of state, Moncef Marzouki.

The candidates started their campaigning on Saturday. The election is scheduled to be held on November 23.

Beji Caid Essebsi, leader of Tunisia’s Nidaa Tounes Party, Slim Riahi, an entrepreneur who owns Club Africain, one of the two major football teams in Tunis, Hamma Hammami, a leftist figurehead and virulent critic of the country’s former dictator, Zine el-Abidine Bin Ali, and his last foreign minister Kamel Morjane are among prominent contenders for the election.

Kalthoum Kannou, a magistrate, is also the only female candidate. She was a stalwart opponent of Ben Ali’s regime, which tried to silence her.

Nidaa Tounes secured 85 seats in Tunisia’s new 217-member parliament after the October 26 elections, while Ennahda Party won 69 seats.

“Candidates from Ennahda or Nidaa Tounes will certainly win the election. The remaining 25 candidates lack their financial and political support. It’s a lost cause as the battle is between those two parties,” political analyst Rachid Jarray told Press TV.

Nearly four years into the popular uprising that toppled Ben Ali, Tunisians hope for the establishment of stability in the country.

Tunisia had just two presidents between independence from France in 1956 and the 2011 revolution, namely Habib Bourguiba, known as the father of independence, and Ben Ali, who overthrew him in 1987.

Ben Ali himself fled to Saudi Arabia on January 14, 2011.

Tunisia’s new constitution, adopted in January, has limited the presidential powers, with most executive power resting with the prime minister from the parliamentary majority.