The first round of Tunisia’s presidential election underlined a critical fact about the country’s fraught democratic transition: Tunisians have had enough of their post-revolution politicians. This was made clear not only by the number of people who skipped the mid-September vote altogether, but by the choices made by those who opted to have a say.

This year’s shortened electoral calendar, in which Tunisians will elect a new parliament between two rounds of presidential voting, was drawn up after the unexpected death of 92-year-old President Beji Caid Essebsi in July. The Independent High Authority for Elections brought the presidential vote forward from its initial November date.

Successfully moving the elections up was another show of institutional stability from an electoral commission that has overseen several smooth elections since longtime autocrat Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali was ousted after widespread protests in 2011. Despite that democratic success, though, successive Tunisian governments have so far failed to create adequate solutions to the deep economic difficulties the country still faces.

Widely dissatisfied with the major political parties, Tunisians largely cast their votes for president on Sept. 15 for politicians who have not been part of the governing system for the past eight years. “The promises and demands of the 2011 revolution have not fully materialized,” Alaya Allani, a professor of contemporary history at the University of Manouba in Tunis, told World Politics Review. “These results show the deep disenchantment of Tunisians with incumbent politicians.”

The winner of the first round was Kais Saied, a 61-year-old constitutional law professor without a party of his own who ran a quiet campaign with little outside support. Although practically unknown to the majority of Tunisians not long ago, he garnered 18.4 percent of the vote.

He will face Nabil Karoui, who secured 15.6 percent, in a runoff scheduled for Oct. 13. In stark contrast to Saeid, the brash 53-year-old media mogul is a well-known and controversial figure who owns a popular television channel. In an additional twist to what would already be an unusual election, Karoui was able to win the second-most votes despite being in jail for most of the campaign and up through Election Day. He was detained in August for money laundering and tax evasion, charges he has denied.

With this unexpected outcome, Tunisians rejected the two main ideological and political currents that have held sway since 2011: secular liberalism and political Islam. Ennahda, the moderate Islamist party that has been a key element in most governments since 2011, fielded a presidential candidate for the first time, having focused most of its attention over the past eight years on local politics through parliamentary and municipal elections. Cleric and lawyer Abdelfattah Mourou came in third with 13 percent of the vote. The secular establishment did even worse. The current prime minister, Youssef Chahed, placed fifth with just 7.4 percent of the votes. Earlier this year, his party, Tahya Tounes, split from Nidaa Tounes, which Essebsi founded in 2012 to attract liberal and secular Tunisians of various stripes. Before the split, Nidaa Tounes was the largest party in parliament.

Being the sole success story of the Arab Spring amounts to little if it doesn’t improve the livelihoods of Tunisians.

After voters in the first round looked beyond the traditional divisions between secularists and Islamists and backed two candidates who have never held political office, the second round is fraught with more unpredictability. Saied recently expressed discomfort at the fact that his opponent remains in jail. Allowing voters to see the two presidential candidates debate how they would move the country forward would be critical for Tunisian democracy.

Despite his low public profile, Saied is nonetheless a recognized figure in political and academic circles. He is considered to be a social conservative but has no previous links to political Islam. “Saied is viewed as someone with integrity that has a strong standing against corruption, and people liked that about him,” Allani said. “He also got a lot of popular support through his ideas about strengthening the state’s role in areas such as health, education and pensions, which basically amounts to a strengthening of the social state.”

With his own private TV channel that often promotes his charitable activities, Karoui strikes a much different profile. He styles himself as an anti-establishment populist, even though he helped found Nidaa Tounes and was a prominent member of the party. He left and set up his own party, known as Heart of Tunisia, earlier this year.

The choice between two unlikely candidates could thrust several issues front and center. Would Saied’s social conservatism push him to support laws that curtail social freedoms or gender equality, as some fear? Would Karoui attempt to strengthen presidential powers, which were reduced after 2011 following years of autocracy?

In the short term, the most challenging question is a legal and constitutional one: What if Tunisians elect a president who is in jail? Although there is a chance that Karoui will be released before the runoff, electing a jailed head of state could further strain the country’s political institutions. After all, Tunisia has been unable to establish a constitutional court that could look into this kind of matter. If Karoui wins from behind bars, though, it may not be such an unsurmountable legal obstacle, according to Allani. “The lack of a constitutional court can pose a challenge,” he said. But other courts could rule on the matter, or other judicial procedures “could unblock this situation if it arises.”

Whatever the outcome, Tunisia’s new president will likely be forced to work alongside a fragmented new parliament. With thousands of candidates vying to fill the 217 parliamentary seats that are up for grabs on Oct. 6, the elections might also reflect a similar level of voter dissatisfaction with the post-2011 political establishment. If no party is able to secure enough votes for a majority, the top two or three parties might agree on a technocratic government until new parliamentary elections can be held. The odd timing of the parliamentary vote, wedged between the first and second rounds of the presidential election, could reshuffle parties’ negotiating strategies across the political spectrum.

All the while, many of the factors that sparked the 2011 popular uprising continue to hang over the country, even after the overall success of Tunisia’s post-revolution transition. Unemployment, at over 15 percent, is virtually the same as it was before Ben Ali’s ouster. Whether or not these elections push Tunisian politics deeper into uncharted territory, the political class should already see them as a stark warning. Being the sole success story of the Arab Spring amounts to little if it doesn’t improve the livelihoods of Tunisians.

Francisco Serrano is a writer, journalist and analyst. His work has appeared in Foreign Affairs, The Outpost, Monocle, Weapons of Reason, The Towner and other outlets. His book, “A Captura de Abdel Karim,” about the Arab uprisings, was published in 2013.