Results from Tunisia's first free election were expected to hand victory to a moderate Islamist party today, sending a message to other states in the region that long-sidelined Islamists are challenging for power after the "Arab Spring".
With election officials still counting the ballot papers, the Ennahda party said its own, unofficial tally showed it had won Sunday's vote, the first since the uprisings which began in Tunisia and spread through the region.
"The first confirmed results show that Ennahda has obtained first place," campaign manager Abdelhamid Jlazzi said outside party headquarters in the centre of the Tunisian capital. As he spoke, a crowd of more than 300 in the street shouted "Allahu Akbar!" or "God is greatest!". Other people started singing the Tunisian national anthem.
Mindful that some people in Tunisia and elsewhere see the resurgence of Islamists as a threat to modern, liberal values, party officials said they were prepared to form an alliance with two secularist parties, the Congress for the Republic and Ettakatol.
"We will spare no effort to create a stable political alliance. . . . We reassure the investors and international economic partners," Mr Jlazzi said.
Two days after an unprecedented 90 per cent of voters turned out for the election, officials were still counting the ballot papers in some areas. They said nationwide results would not be ready before Tuesday afternoon.
Sunday's vote was for an assembly which will sit for one year to draft a new constitution. It will also appoint a new interim president and government to run the country until fresh elections late next year or early in 2013.
The voting system has built-in checks and balances which make it nearly impossible for any one party to have a majority, compelling Ennahda to seek alliances with secularist parties, which will dilute its influence.
The result is likely to resonate in Egypt, which is holding its own post-revolution election in November. An Islamist party which shares much of the same ideology as Ennahda is predicted to perform strongly.
Tunisia became the birthplace of the "Arab Spring" when Mohamed Bouazizi, a vegetable seller in a provincial town, set fire to himself in protest at poverty and government repression.
His suicide in December provoked a wave of protests which forced autocratic President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to flee to Saudi Arabia the following month.
The revolution in Tunisia, a former French colony, in turn inspired uprisings which forced out entrenched leaders in Egypt and Libya, and convulsed Yemen and Syria - reshaping the political landscape of the Middle East.
Ennahda is led by Rachid Ghannouchi, forced into exile in Britain for 22 years because of harassment by Ben Ali's police. Mr Ghannouchi is at pains to stress his party will not enforce any code of morality on Tunisian society, or the millions of Western tourists who holiday on its beaches. He models his approach on the moderate Islamism of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.
The party's rise has been met with ambivalence by some people in Tunisia. The country's strong secularist traditions go back to the first post-independence president, Habiba Bourguiba, who called the hijab an "odious rag".
Reuters