Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi calls his people to vote after casting his ballot in a polling station at Ariana in Tunis, capital of Tunisia on May 6, 2018. About 11,185 polling stations opened early Sunday to host in total 5.3 million Tunisians registered voting for their first free municipal elections since the 2011 revolution. (Xinhua/Liu Kai)??

TUNIS, May 6 (Xinhua) -- About 11,185 polling stations opened early Sunday to host in total 5.3 million Tunisians registered voting for their first free municipal elections since the 2011 revolution.

Spread over 40,000 centers across 350 constituencies in the 24 provinces, polling stations begin at 8:00 am and will end around 6:00 pm, except for 172 polling stations located in border provinces, where the polls begin at 9:00 am and end at 4:00 pm for security reasons.

A few dozen voters, including women accompanied by their children carrying Tunisian flags, were in front of the "Sidi Fraj" primary school in Soukra, one district of Ariana province in northern suburbs of Tunis.

While waiting to access the polling station to exercise their electoral rights, these Tunisians met their President, Beji Caid Essebsi, who arrived around 10 am and voted.

The municipal elections observed the candidacy of 53,668 Tunisians including 49.26% of women. These candidates are spread over 2074 electoral lists in the running, including 1055 lists of political parties, 860 independent lists and 159 coalition lists.

According to figures from Independent High Authority for Elections of Tunisia, 69.63% of the heads of lists are men and 30.37% are women.

Officially, the announcement of preliminary results is expected from Sunday evening, with a 3-day ultimatum, and the final results will be proclaimed no later than June 13th, 2018 after the processing of the appeals.???