Blog exclusive: 100 Israelis vote in Tunisian poll

With thanks: Shaul

The Tunisian president, Zine Ben Ali, is set to serve a fifth five-year term following a landslide win in the presidential elections held yesterday.

Point of No Return can reveal that 100 Israelis of Tunisian origin cast their votes. The voting took place in a polling station in Jerusalem in the presence of the Tunisian ambassador to the Palestinian Authority.

The vast majority are thought to have voted for the ever youthful-looking Ben Ali, 73, pictured below.

The Paris-based Association of Tunisian Jews in France had urged Jews to support Ben Ali. It praised him for his wise and clear-sighted social and economic policies, which had enhanced Tunisia's international standing.

In a message addressed to the Head of State, the association said it "prides itself on the welfare and dignity benefiting Tunisians, as well as the indicators of development and progress recorded by Tunisia in a climate of openness, tolerance and solidarity."

Some 2,000 Jews still live in Tunisia of a community which once numbered over 100,000. They comprise one percent of the inhabitants of the island of Djerba. Many have relatives in Israel and can and do visit them, although there are no direct links.