Tunisia’s first freely elected president, Beji Caid Essebsi died Thursday morning. He was aged 92, and the world’s oldest sitting president. Essebsi died at the Tunis military hospital on Thursday morning, the presidency said in a statement.
According to Al Jazeera, he was admitted to hospital on Wednesday but officials did not say why he was receiving treatment.
Essebsi was a major player in Tunisia's transition to democracy after a 2011 revolution. He won Tunisia’s first free elections in 2014 following Arab uprisings across the region.
He also co-brokered a historic power-sharing deal between his Nidaa Tounes movement and Islamist party Ennahda that helped to steady the country, as other parts of the region such as Syria, Yemen or Libya struggled with upheaval and violence.
Though Tunisia remained a democratic exception in a troubled region, critics accused Essebsi of attempting a dynastic handover to his son, rowing back on some post-revolution freedoms, and failing to support a truth commission seeking justice for the victims of authoritarian rule.
Essebsi recently announced he would not run in an election scheduled for November, saying a younger person should lead the country.
Earlier this year, he announced he would not stand in elections expected in November.
