Tunisia to Choose Course in First Democratic Presidential Election TUNIS - Less than a month after electing a new Parliament, Tunisians will vote Sunday in their first-ever open democratic presidential election, completing a tumultuous democratic transition begun with their revolution nearly four years ago. The front-runner, Beji Caid Essebsi, who turns 88 next week, leads a field of 27 candidates that includes former dissidents and political prisoners, former officials from the dictatorship, a millionaire football boss, and a female magistrate - the only woman in the race. Mr. Essebsi has promised to restore the authority of the state and stability to a country that has struggled with economic malaise and a rise in Islamist terrorism since the overthrow of the autocratic president, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. For many Tunisians, weary of two years of sometimes chaotic rule by the country's Islamist party, Ennahda, that followed the revolution, Mr. Essebsi is seen as a reassuring figure. "In this period we need him, his capacity and his expertise," said Tarek Ben Slimen, a retired printer, shouting over the cheers at a rally in Tunis. He is the one who created the political balance. If not for him, things would have been worse. Mr. Essebsi is riding the success of his secular two-year-old party, Nidaa Tounes (Call for Tunisia), which gained the most seats in the legislative elections in October and will lead a coalition government. With a career spanning over 50 years, Mr. Essebsi served three times as minister, once as head of Parliament and as ambassador under both of Tunisia's authoritarian presidents, Habib Bourguiba and Mr. Ben Ali. His opponents, however, emphasize his age and his connections to the former government, raising fears that he is ushering in a return of officials from the Ben Ali era. Mr. Essebsi came out of retirement to head Nidaa Tounes, a collection of leftists, businessmen and former government officials united by their opposition to the Islamists. They led an effective campaign in the legislative elections urging voters to cast a tactical vote to prevent Ennahda from gaining a majority in Parliament. The strategy won Nidaa Tounes 86 seats to Ennadha's 69 in the assembly, according to final results announced Friday, not enough for a majority but giving it the lead in a coalition. The result has created a shift in Tunisia's volatile transitional politics before the presidential elections. Ennahda has not fielded a candidate for the presidency, nor is it backing any candidate publicly, preferring to concentrate its efforts in the legislature. In the absence of the Islamists, some Tunisians are questioning whether Mr. Essebsi will gain too much power, if he leads both the legislative and executive branches. It was the first thing Mr. Essebsi addressed at a big rally in the capital last weekend, emphasizing his readiness to share power. "We will try to work with other political parties because this is a sensitive period during which we need to show national unity," he told supporters. The Tunisian nation is a great and smart people, and it gave us a clear message saying that we should govern, but with help. One of his main challengers, Moncef Marzouki, is a longtime dissident, academic and human rights activist, who has served as president since shortly after the revolution in 2011. Mr. Marzouki, 69, has an informal style that has endeared him to some Tunisians and infuriated others. One morning this week he walked down the main street of the capital's roughest working-class neighborhood, Ettadhamen, greeting supporters and waving victory signs. "Others are talking about the authority of the state," he told the crowd. I want to talk about the authority of the people. It starts with you, your ideas, your freedoms. This Sunday marks an important date in history. Will you allow the old regime to come back or not? Mr. Marzouki's party, the Congress for the Republic, fared badly in the legislative elections, punished for its role in Ennahda's coalition government, and only held on to four seats. Mr. Marzouki appealed to voters to look past their frustrations. "You can be angry at your brother, and at your son, but still care about them and believe in them," he said. We are a nation of citizens who need a citizen president. Mr. Marzouki is hoping to win support from Ennahda supporters, which could be enough to force the election to a second round. If no candidate wins a majority, a runoff between the two leading candidates will be held on Dec. 28. Another candidate, Hamma Hammami, 62, has been rising in the polls as head of the Communist Party and leader of the leftist alliance, the Popular Front. Mr. Hammami, a former political prisoner who comes from a poor farming region in Tunisia's northwest, commands strong support among the working class and rural poor and is now making a bid for broader support. Commentators have singled him out as the candidate with enough national appeal to possibly defeat Mr. Essebsi if the election goes to a second round. Yet Mr. Essebsi has been clever enough to distance himself from the worst aspects of the Ben Ali period and to connect with the patriotic era of Tunisia's first president after independence, Mr. Bourguiba, who is better regarded. He has tapped the support of former officials by backing their return to political life and using their old networks to mobilize the vote for his party. Nevertheless, Mr. Essebsi has kept the senior or more notorious political figures from the Ben Ali era at arm's length, by sidelining them from leading any of the party lists, according to the political analyst Ridha Tlili, the director of the Ahmed Tlili Foundation for the Culture of Democracy. Mr. Essebsi's supporters, young and old, praise his actions since the revolution, in overseeing Tunisia's first free elections in 2011 and offering Ennahda a way out of the political crisis of 2013, with fresh elections under a caretaker government, that avoided the bloodshed that many feared was looming. "We are convinced Essebsi is the best," said Khalid el Bez, a student attending a rally for the candidate in Tunis. He gave us the opportunity for a democratic election after the revolution, and he gave up power in a democratic way. Personally, I prefer an old guy who knows what he is doing to a young guy who does not.