Tunisia’s new leader Beji Caid Essebsi says the country has turned the page on dictatorship after a presidential vote that rounded off its transition to democracy

Tunisia's new leader Beji Caid Essebsi says the country has turned the page on dictatorship after a presidential vote that rounded off its transition to democracy.
  
Essebsi, an 88-year-old veteran of previous Tunisian regimes, was on Monday declared the winner of a vote hailed as a landmark for the birthplace of the Arab Spring.
  
European Union observers were to report later Tuesday on whether the election met democratic standards but it has already won praise from Western leaders including US President Barack Obama.
  
After an often bitter and divisive campaign that saw Essebsi defeat incumbent Moncef Marzouki, some have raised concerns that his victory marks the return of Tunisia's old guard. But Essebsi insisted Tunisia would not turn back history.
  
"I am for completely turning the page on the past, we must go beyond the past and look to the future," Essebsi said in a nationally televised interview late on Monday.