On Monday December 12, 2011, Tunisia’s new assembly elected a leading human rights activist as the country’s first democratically elected president. Moncef Marzouki became the country’s first interim president in the country that sparked the “Arab Spring” nearly one-year ago this week.

(Former doctor and human rights campaigner Moncef Marzouki waves to the media at the constituent assembly in Tunis December 12, 2011)

Marzouki, of the Congress for the Republic Party, won 153 out of 217 votes in the country’s new parliament, with three votes against, two abstentions and 44 blank ballots in protest.

The election of the interim president follows the weekend approval of temporary bylaws to guide the nation until the assembly finishes a constitution.

It also comes less than two months since elections and nearly one-year after Tunisians overthrew their longtime dictator Ben Ali – an uprising that sparked similar movements in other Arab states.

كلمة المرزوقي عقب أدائه اليمين