TUNIS
Tunisia's caretaker President Moncef Marzouki has said that he will not challenge the results of the country's presidential runoff election, in which his rival Beji Caid Essebsi was declared a winner.
"We will not go to courts or lodge appeals," Marzouki said in speech aired on national television late Monday.
"I'm preoccupied with stability and stability can be achieved by calming nerves," he said, going on to call on his supporters in southern provinces to calm down following the vote results.
Essebsi, the leader of the centrist Nidaa Tounes party, was declared winner of Sunday's presidential runoff poll with 55.68 percent of the vote.
According to Tunisia's election commission, Marzouki, for his part, won 44.32 percent of the vote.
Following the poll results, supporters of Marzouki torched the headquarters of Essebsi's party in the southern Tataouine province.
Tunisia's presidential election was the first to be held since the ouster of autocratic President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in a popular uprising in 2011.
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