In Tunisia, voters went to the polls for the presidential election. Voting ended Sunday at 18: 00 local time.

Turnout in the election, in which 24 candidates competed, stood at 45 percent. Turnout for the first free elections in 2014 was close to 70 percent.

Constitution Professor Kays Saeed, whose name is hardly heard in the political arena, won 19.5 percent of the vote among the candidates, according to the preliminary results. He was followed by Nabil Karvi, leader of the Heart of Tunisia Party, with 15.5 percent of the vote.

Nahda Movement candidate Abdul Fattah Moro was in third with 11 percent of the vote, while former Defense Minister Abdul Karim Zubeydi of the NIDA Tunisian party was fourth with 9.4 percent and Prime Minister Yusuf Shahid was fifth with 7.5 percent.

Kays Saeed, 61, one of the architects of Tunisia's 2014 text, which was hailed as "the Arab world's most democratic constitution," has stood out as the non-political favorite ahead of the elections with promises such as "morality in politics, fighting corruption".

Final results are expected to be announced on Tuesday.

ILKHA