President Béji Caïd Essebsi, Tunisia’s first popularly elected head of state, who steered the country through a democratic transition after an uprising that set in motion the Arab Spring of 2011, died Thursday morning in Tunis. He was 92.

His death, in a military hospital, was announced by the government in a statement. No cause was given. He admitted to the hospital last month with an unspecified illness, sparking rumors that he had died.

In a political career of more than 60 years, Mr. Essebsi was the only senior politician in Tunisia to hold political office in the new democracy as well as under the previous dictatorships of Habib Bourguiba, who became president after the country gained independence from France, and Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who was ultimately ousted.

The government statement called him one of Tunisia’s “greatest men and one of those who contributed the most to building it.”