Thousands take to streets after exit polls give conservative academic more than 70% of the vote

A low-profile, conservative law professor has beaten a charismatic media magnate released from prison last week in Tunisia’s presidential election runoff.

In a contest that reflected Tunisia’s shifting post-revolution political landscape, Kais Saied scooped more than 70% of the vote, according to two exit polls, more than 40 points ahead of Nabil Karoui.

Exit poll points to victory for low-profile law professor Kais Saied over fellow outsider Nabil Karoui

Tunisians are voting on Sunday in a runoff presidential election between a low-profile law professor and a charismatic media magnate who was released from prison earlier this week.

The Maghreb country, often held up as the lone success story of the Arab spring, appears set to successfully carry out its second-ever presidential elections, with an earlier round of voting winnowing the field from 26 candidates to the two self-styled outsiders, the lawyer Kais Saied and the businessman Nabil Karoui.

Kaïs Saïed and media mogul Nabil Karoui appear to have taken the top two spots and will progress to a runoff

The first exit polls in Tunisia’s presidential elections suggest a shock victory for two political outsiders, law professor Kaïs Saïed and media mogul Nabil Karoui, who is on remand in prison on corruption charges he denies.

The early results indicate that faced with widespread disillusion over the country’s progress in the past eight years since its revolution, Tunisians have rejected politicians associated with the country’s two main political trends who have dominated for the last years, including the moderate Islamist Ennahda party.

Jailed Nabil Karoui hopes to appeal to voters disillusioned by lack of progress since Arab spring

Campaigning ends on Friday in Tunisia’s presidential election before Sunday’s first round of voting, pitting more than two dozen candidates against each other, including a media mogul running for office from jail.

Tunisia is the last of the Arab spring countries still on a democratic track, after Egypt slipped back toward authoritarianism and Syria and Libya descended into conflict.