'I have been given the most valuable thing a human being can receive'

'I have been given the most valuable thing a human being can receive' Tunis - Nabil Zaghdoud  The Tunisian Constituent Assembly has elected Dr. Moncef Marzouki, the leader of the Conference for the Republic Political Party, as the new president eleven months after former dictator  Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's overthrow. 
Ten candidates vied for the position, most of which were studied by "Votes Count Committee", which found out that the only one to meet all the required conditions was Marzouki.
Marzouki is set to be the first Tunisian elected president since the end of French occupation.
Dr. Moncef Marzouki, 66, was the candidate of the ruling coalition that gained 89 seats in the election. The Conference for the Republic Party won 29 seats, while the Democratic Bloc for Work and Freedoms got 20 seats. The coalition gained a majority in the assembly, while electing a president needed an absolute majority with 50 per cent of the votes.
Marzouki won the majority of votes (153 from 217) although a number of political forces refused to name a candidate and chose to vote through white papers (44 white papers that were regarded as null), objecting to the absence of time limits to the role of the Constituent Assembly and restricting the authorities of the president to the same limits of the prime minister's authorities.  
"I was given the most valuable thing a human being can ever be given: leading the country.. I want to say that I'm going to do my best to be trustworthy as I'm aware of the huge responsibility loaded on my shoulders," said Marzouki. He also spoke to the opposition saying "there is no democracy without majority, minority, government and oppositions".
Marzouki will recite the constitutional oath of the president Tuesday morning at the Constituent Assembly and give a statement to celebrate the occasion before going to Carthage Palace as the fifth president of Tunisia.  
Samir Bin Omar, a leading member of the Conference for the Republic, said: "Tunisia waited this historical moment for a long time to witness an elected and undisputed candidate going to the presidential palace as the leader of the country."
"The history of Tunisia will record this Monday, the 12th of December 2011 with letters of gold as it is the day that witnessed electing the president though an indirect elective democracy, which is an unprecedented experience in the Arab world that will never be forgotten throughout the generations," said Karim Bin Mansour, a political analyst at Bab Nat website.