20111213
Press TV
Tunisia's veteran opposition leader Moncef Marzouki has been elected president, more than a month after the country's first post-revolution election was held.

Marzouki, 66, the leader of the Congress for the Republic Party won 153 votes in the 217-member assembly, with three of the 202 deputies present voting against, two abstaining, and 44 casting blank ballots, AFP reported.

The rights activist, who was voted as interim president, ran unopposed after the opposition failed to introduce a candidate. The nine other candidates did not meet the criteria.

Based on the provisional constitution adopted by the Constituent Assembly on Sunday, the president had to be "exclusively Tunisian, of the Muslim religion," the child of Tunisian parents and at least 35 years old.

The provisional document outlines the conditions and procedures to be abided by the country's executive, legislature and judiciary until a new permanent constitution is drafted and passed.

The president is to head the country's armed forces, and outline Tunisia's foreign policy and names or dismisses senior officials following an agreement with the prime minister.

In October, the Islamic al-Nahda party won 89 seats of the Constituent Assembly in the first democratic elections after the January revolution which toppled former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.