TUNIS – Rights activist and former opposition leader Moncef Marzouki will on Tuesday be sworn in as Tunisia's first elected president.

"I am proud to carry the most precious of responsibilities, that of being the guarantor of the people, the state and the revolution," said the 66-year-old Marzouki following his election on Monday, wearing his trademark oversize glasses and his usual grey suit with white shirt and no tie.

Marzouki was elected with 153 votes in the 217-member constituent assembly, with three of the 202 deputies present voting against, two abstaining and 44 opposition members casting blank ballots.

Addressing the opposition, Marzouki said: "I have received your message that you will be keeping an eye on me."

Among those who voted against Marzouki was Samir Bettaieb of the left-wing Democratic Modernist Pole.

"This election took place on the basis of an unbalanced text that gives a lot of power to a designated head of government at the expense of an elected president," he said.

Marzouki's inauguration will take place at the presidential palace in Carthage, 11 months after the ouster of Zine el Abidine Ben Ali sparked the Arab Spring revolts that also saw long-time dictators toppled in Egypt and Libya.

The north African country's new president was Ben Ali's bete noire throughout his political career and was forced to live in exile in France for a decade.

Marzouki's first order of business will be to name a prime minister, with Hamadi Jebali, the number two of the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, expected to get the nod. – AFP