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Tunisia’s new president inaugurated

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Beji Caid Essebsi has been sworn in as Tunisia’s new president, following the first free presidential election in the country since independence from France in 1956.

A swearing-in ceremony was held on Wednesday after which the 88-year-old political veteran told parliament that he would be “the president of all Tunisians” and “the guarantor of national unity.”

“There is no future for Tunisia without consensus among political parties and members of civil society,” Essebsi noted, urging “national reconciliation” for the future of the nation.

He also attended a handover ceremony at the presidential palace, where he was embraced by the outgoing leader, Moncef Marzouki, who was elected president at the end of 2011 by an interim assembly.

Tunisian Parliament Speaker Mohamed Ennaceur, meanwhile, hailed the oath-taking ceremony as “an exceptional moment in history.”

The new president, from the Nidaa Tounes secular political party, garnered 55.68 percent of the votes to overcome Marzouki, who collected 44.32 percent of the ballots, in the December 21 run-off.

The first round of the presidential vote on November 23 saw Essebsi in the lead with 39 percent of the vote, six points ahead of Marzouki.

Essebsi served as the prime minister of Tunisia briefly after the ouster of former dictator, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, while elections were organized for the interim assembly. Ben Ali was toppled in a 2011 popular uprising.

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