Tunisia’s hopeful transition to a democratic future faces a new challenge. Voters in the country have delivered a sharp rebuke to their political elite. In the first round of presidential elections, held on Sept. 15, candidates from establishment parties performed poorly, among them Ennahda, the conservative Islamic party with the most seats in Parliament, and Tahya Tounes, or Long Live Tunisia, the party of Youssef Chahed, the current prime minister.

Instead, two political outsiders emerged on top and will enter a runoff election in October. One is a constitutional lawyer who says he has never voted before. The other owns a television station and is in jail on suspicion of tax evasion and money laundering.

This vote was not just a rejection of the current coalition government; it looks like a rejection of the way the elite has conducted politics throughout the transition. In 2011, Tunisians overthrew their authoritarian ruler, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who died in exile in Saudi Arabia on Sept. 19. Their uprising sparked the Arab Spring, which is still reshaping political life in the Middle East. This year protests brought down authoritarian rulers in Sudan and Algeria, and in recent days protests have returned to the streets of Egypt, despite heavy repression.

Tunisia’s democratic transition appeared to benefit from pragmatism and consensus over the past eight years. The Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, made up of four civil society groups, was awarded the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize for successfully negotiating a way out of a grave political crisis two years earlier when the transition was close to collapse. Politicians went on to write a progressive constitution and to build an inclusive political system that gave space to both Islamists and their former adversaries from Mr. Ben Ali’s ousted regime.