Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Andrew Green curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent.
Tunisia’s presidential race is headed to a runoff next month between two surprising candidates: a law school professor who barely bothered to campaign and a media mogul who spent Election Day in jail.
Analysts are reading the results as a sharp rebuke of the new political establishment that has emerged since the overthrow of autocratic leader Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011. Neither Kais Saied, the professor, nor business tycoon Nabil Karoui has ever held elected office. They drew 18.4 percent and 15.6 percent of the vote, respectively, amid a less than 50 percent voter turnout.