By Nayress Ben Gaga

TUNIS 

Tunisia's only female presidential hopeful, Kalthoum Kannou, on Sunday showed up at a polling station in the Tunisian capital to cast her vote in the presidential elections, which started earlier in the day.

Accompanying Kannou in the journey to the polling station was her husband.

Soon after both of them arrived at the polling station, Kannou and her husband started searching for their names in voter lists. Five minutes later they were inside the polling station to vote in the elections, the first since the 2011 uprising that ousted long-serving president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

Surrounded by journalists and photojournalists on all sides, Kannou dropped her voting card inside the ballot box, giving assembled media the chance to snap the voting moment of Tunisia's only presidential candidate.

"I am full of confidence that I will cross to the second stage of the elections," a confident Kannou told journalists. "I made sure during my field visits that a large number of people support my candidacy," she added.

She said she was certain that a large number of Tunisia's female voters would vote for her, expressing hopes that her presidential candidacy would embolden Tunisia's women into running in their country's next municipal elections.

"I hope the next president will work to give Tunisians their confidence and hope in their country back," Kannou said. "A large number of people, especially youths, have lost this confidence and this hope," she added.

Tunisians started casting their votes in their country's presidential election since the early hours of the morning on Sunday. Vying for the top post in this North African country are 27 people, including incumbent interim president Moncef Marzouki.

Until 1:00pm local time, 40 percent of registered voters had cast their votes in the elections, according to Tunisia's election commission.

Around 5.2 million Tunisians are eligible to vote in the elections.

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