Tunisian PM casts vote

Prime Minister Beji Caid Sebsi cast his vote on in Tunisia’s first free elections.Sebsi is a technocrat who served as foreign minister under ousted President Zine Abidine Ben Alis predecessor, Habiba Bourguiba. Diplomats say it is likely he will be replaced.The North African country, which overthrew Ben Ali in January, is choosing an assembly which will have the task of writing a new constitution, installing a temporary executive and setting a fresh round of elections.On Thursday (October 20) Sebsi said in a televised address that Tunisians should vote without fear of violence or cheating, a feature of Ben Ali’s police state.Sebsi assured voters the elections would be transparent and that no rigging of ballots would occur. The Islamist Ennahda party, banned under Ben Ali who is now in exile in Saudi Arabia, is expected to gain the biggest share of votes. But it will probably not win enough to give it a majority in the assembly forcing the party to seek to lead a coalition. The North African countrys elite fear the rise of Ennahda puts their secular values under threat.