Political outsider Kais Saied was leading Tunisia’s election with just over a quarter of votes counted, the election commission said yesterday, in the country’s second free presidential vote since the Arab Spring.

Saied was on 19 percent, leading imprisoned media magnate Nabil Karoui, who was on 14.9 percent, and ahead of the candidate from the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party Abdelfattah Mourou (13.1 percent).

The announcement came after both Saied and Karoui’s camp claimed to have won through to the second round, in the highly divisive polls.

Local papers splashed photos across their front pages of law professor Saied and magnate Karoui, after exit polls showed they had qualified for the second round of voting.

“An unexpected verdict,” ran a headline in La Presse.

Le Temps titled its editorial “The Slap”, while the Arabic language Echourouk newspaper highlighted a “political earthquake” and a “tsunami” in the Maghreb.