Tunisia on Monday installed as its new president a former dissident who was imprisoned and then exiled for opposing former President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, a new landmark in the country's post-revolutionary transition to democracy.
Members of the constitutional assembly, Tunisia's interim parliament, voted to elect Moncef Marzouki as president, the second most powerful role after the prime minister.
Marzouki, 66, is respected by many Tunisians for his implacable opposition to the autocratic Ben Ali. As president, he will be a secularist counterweight to the moderate Islamist party which is now Tunisia's dominant political force. [Reuters] Read more
