TUNIS: Tunisians voted yesterday in an election seen as critical for democracy in the cradle of the Arab Spring, with the main secular party confident of a strong showing as the vote count started.
US President Barack Obama hailed the North African country’s first parliamentary election since its 2011 revolution as “an important milestone in Tunisia’s historic political transition”.
Nearly 60 percent of an electorate of five million people voted for a 217-seat parliament under a new constitution drafted in January. Authorities deployed 80,000 troops and police to protect voters but the day passed without any reports of unrest.
“We have positive indications that Nidaa Tounes could be leading,” party leader Beji Caid Essebsi said. The Islamist party Ennahda, tipped to win the polls, declined to be drawn on a forecast ahead of the official results. The ISIE body organising the election could give partial results today but it has until October 30 to announce the final outcome.
Half an hour before the polls closed, turnout had reached 59.99 percent, it said. Officials described the vote as “historic” and a “defining moment” while voters voiced hope a new parliament would help restore political and economic stability as well as law and order.
