Published on October 25th, 2011 | by Joe Hinds
Image © [caption id="attachment_4914" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Tunisian Citizens Queue To Vote In Sunday's Elections © Lionel Bonaventure"][/caption] The moderate Islamist party An-Nahda (also being referred to as Ennahda) has claimed victory in Tunisia's first free elections following 9 months of revolution. Although the official results will not be released until later today the party has claimed that is has won the most votes whilst falling short of winning a majority.The leaders of two leftist parties, the Congress Party for the Republic (CPR) and Ettakol, have announced that they are fighting for second place while the centre-left Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) have already publicly conceded defeat to An-Nahda, who showed a lead in the polls throughout the country and are expected to win over 30% of the seats in Tunisia's 217-member consitutent assembly, following the country's historic election. The An-Nahda party was officially banned for 10 years and brutally repressed under the previous regime of Ben Ali, with its supporters previously having been exiled, imprisoned and tortured. The party have campaigned on a moderate pro-democracy stance, vowing to respect Tunisia's strong secular tradition as well as the most advanced women's rights in the Arab world, comparing itself to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Turkey, with their key priority to 'restore stability to Tunisia'. Sunday's elections, deemed as free and fair, have been praised as a resounding success for the country that has taken a major democratic step since its revolution. More than 90% of the 4.1 million registered Tunisian citizens turned out to vote on Sunday after more than 100 parties had registered to participate in the elections, showing huge public support for the country's transition to democracy. Sunday's poll took place to elect a 217-seat assembly whose primary role will be to draft a constitution and appoint an interim president and form a caretaker government whilst setting a date for parliamentary elections in a year's time. An An-Nahda win would be the first Islamist election success in the Arab world since Hamas won the Palestinian Vote in 2006 and it's leaders have pledged to create a multi-party, secular democracy, and not an Islamist state and it likely to form an alliance with Ettakol.