Tunisians await results after election 'triumph'

Tunisians and the world Monday eagerly awaited the results of the country's first-ever democratic elections, which were hailed at home and abroad as a triumph for the Arab Spring. No results had been issued 14 hours after polls closed in Tunisia's first-ever electoral contest without a pre-determined outcome, held nine months after the ouster of dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali that sparked region-wide uprisings. The Islamist Ennahda party is widely predicted to win the most votes but fall short of a majority in a new 217-member assembly that will rewrite the constitution and appoint a president to form a caretaker government. "We are patient. We have waited 50 years, we can wait another 24," for the final results expected Tuesday, a smiling voter who would only give his name as Houcine told AFP on the main Avenue Bourguiba in Tunis. After a day marked by snaking queues of voters at polling stations countrywide, several political parties held gatherings in the capital overnight without claiming an outcome. At the headquarters of Ennahda, supporters congratulated each other at a late-night function where they celebrated with fruit juice as a pulpit set up for party leader Rached Ghannouchi remained empty. "The people have voted, democracy has triumphed," the daily La Presse said in bold, red letters -- the colour of the Tunisian flag -- on its front page Monday. "October 23, 2011 will be remembered in history as a very special day not only for Tunisia but for the entire Arab world. "For the first time in this vast autocratic region ... a popular consultation was held that respected the rules and criteria followed in countries with a long tradition of democracy." UN chief Ban Ki-moon congratulated the Tunisian people for holding "peaceful and orderly" elections. "This landmark election constitutes a key step in the democratic transition of the country and a significant development in the overall democratic transformation in North Africa and the Middle East," he said. Ben Ali was ousted in January after 23 years of iron-fisted rule in a popular uprising that sparked region-wide revolts which claimed their latest Arab strongman Thursday with the killing of Moamer Kadhafi of Libya. Some 7.2 million Tunisians were eligible to vote, and elections chief Kamel Jendoubi saying turnout had "exceeded all expectations". The elected assembly will decide on the country's system of government and how to guarantee basic liberties, including women's rights, which many fear Ennahda would seek to diminish despite its assurances to the contrary. It will also have interim authority to write laws and pass budgets. Ennahda says it models itself on the ruling AKP party in Turkey, another Muslim-majority country which like Tunisia to date has a secular state. Its critics have accused Ennahda of preaching modernism in public and radicalism in the mosques, but Tunisia's progressive left remains divided with party leaders having failed to form a pre-vote alliance. The electoral system was designed to include as many parties as possible in drafting the new constitution, expected to take a year, ahead of fresh national elections. Sunday's vote was the first run by an independent electoral body after decades of ballot-stuffing by the interior ministry. The current, interim government will remain in power until the assembly appoints a new president, not before November 9.