ON THE face of things, it is surprising that Tunisia’s first president chosen in an open, democratic election is an 88-year-old former minister, Beji Caid Sebsi. Four years ago stone-throwing youths took to the streets, instigating an uprising that overthrew Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, the autocrat who had reigned for the previous 23 years. After his fall the first elections were easily won by Islamists who had previously been banned. Now, by contrast, Tunisia will be presided over by a veteran who served as interior minister in Habib Bourguiba’s government in the 1960s. In a run-off on December 21st he got 56% of the votes cast, comfortably defeating Moncef Marzouki, a former human-rights campaigner who had spent years in exile.

Mr Caid Sebsi portrayed himself as an admirer of Bourguiba, who ruled the country for 30 years after independence from France in 1956. But he played down his role as interior minister at a time of repression, instead stressing his record as a conciliatory interim prime minister for ten months immediately after the revolution of 2011.

Mr Marzouki’s appeal to voters was that he would defend their newly won liberties. This attracted Islamist sympathisers, especially supporters of Nahda (“Awakening”), the Islamist party that had led a governing coalition in the outgoing constituent assembly but which chose not to put up a candidate. A swathe of other Tunisians with grim memories of life under Mr Ben Ali also backed Mr Marzouki, who had served as interim president for the past three years. But for other voters, Mr Caid Sebsi’s Nidaa Tounes (“Tunisian Call”) party smacks of the old regime under a new guise. The result also exposed the gulf between the poor south and the richer north. In the five southernmost regions, 80% of voters plumped for Mr Marzouki.

When a Nidaa Tounes spokesman claimed victory on the evening of polling day, as votes were still being counted, Mr Marzouki’s supporters protested near the southern port of Gabes. An Islamist news website then claimed there had been massive fraud. Protests spread to a handful of southern towns and a suburb of Tunis. Some local government offices and police stations were torched, recalling the revolt against Mr Ben Ali. Mr Marzouki eventually said he would not challenge the result. His advisers seem to have decided that if fraud did take place, it was not on a scale that would have altered the outcome.

Parliament and president are, for the moment, in tune. After a general election in October, Nidaa Tounes became the largest party in parliament. It is a melting pot of former members of Mr Ben Ali’s old ruling party with non-aligned figures who want to salvage what they regard as the better aspects of the Bourguiba era: efficiency and secular values.

Nidaa Tounes is expected to form a coalition government. Mr Caid Sebsi is to resign as party leader and is thought to favour a non-party prime minister. His party’s claim to defend liberty and openness will soon be tested, as a “truth and dignity commission” starts looking into past human-rights abuses. A few days before Mr Caid Sebsi was to be sworn in some commission members arrived to fetch documents from the presidential archive. They were blocked by guards.