Islamist Party Claims Victory in Tunisian Election

The first election to follow the Arab Spring sees the once-banned Ennahda promising to work with secular parties in a coalition.

Ennahda, a moderate Islamist political party, claims to have won the most seats in Tunisia's first ever democratic election, and says it intends to rule in a coalition with two of the bigger secularist parties. The official results are expected to be released sometime today, but Ennahda has jumped the gun a bit in heralding itself as victor of a race in which it was widely expected to take the most of the constituent assembly's 217 seats. Less than a year ago, Ennahda and most other political parties had been banned under the regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, but a couple weeks of street protests in December and January led to his hasty departure. The election was held to determine the make-up of the legislature that will draw up a constitution by which Tunisia will be governed. Another election will be held in 2013. All told, 90 per cent of eligible Tunisians cast ballots in the election. Ennahda's two likely coalition partners are the Congress for the Republic, a centrist, secular party that was second in the polls before the election, and Ettakatol, a left-wing secular party.