UPDATE 4-Tunisian electoral head urges youth to vote with turnout seeming low
* Tunisia chose democracy after 2011 revolution
* Economic problems have disillusioned many
* Two candidates with most votes will hold run-off (Recasts with slow voting)
By Tarek Amara and Angus McDowall
TUNIS, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Tunisia's electoral commission urged young people to head to the polls on Sunday after slow voting for much of the day in a presidential race that features a media tycoon standing while in detention.
With more than two dozen candidates on the ballot paper, no overwhelming favourite had emerged before voting began, making it the most unpredictable election in Tunisia's brief history of democracy.
After years of economic troubles including high unemployment and inflation, many Tunisians have voiced frustration over their government's inability to improve living standards.
At the polling booths on Sunday, the candidate voters talked about most frequently to Reuters journalists was the media magnate, Nabil Karoui, who has been in detention since last month on charges of tax evasion and money laundering.
"I call on young people and all Tunisians to leave homes and exercise their electoral right," said electoral commission head Nabil Baffoun.
He said that by 3pm turnout stood only at 27.8%. In the 2014 election, turnout was higher than 50% in the presidential vote.
While foreign attention, especially in Arab countries, is focused on the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, Tunisians have been engrossed by the fate of Karoui.
A court on Friday ruled he must stay in detention after his arrest last month on the three-year-old charges brought by a transparency watchdog, and which he denies. His supporters say he has been silenced.
Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, as well as two former prime ministers, a former president and the defence minister are also standing. Two of the 26 candidates have withdrawn in recent days to support a rival, though their names still appear on the ballots.
(Reporting by Tarek Amara and Angus McDowall; additional reporting by Mohamed Argoubi; editing by Elaine Hardcastle and Raissa Kasolowsky)
