It's official: Islamist party Ennahda won Tunisian vote

Oct 27, 2011, 22:18 GMT

Tunis - Tunisia's election commission confirmed Thursday that the moderate Islamist party Ennahda won the country's first free elections last weekend.

Ennahda, which was banned under ousted dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, won 90 seats in the 217-seat constituent assembly, giving it 41 per cent of the seats.

The next biggest party, the leftist Congress of the Republic, won 30 seats, followed by the social-democratic party Ettakatol with 21 seats. In joint fourth were the Progressive Democratic Party, previously the biggest opposition party, and Al Aridha, the party of a millionaire expatriate businessman, with 19 seats a piece.

The elections were the first since young people took to the streets to demand their corrupt leader of 23 years 'degage' (get lost). After a month of protests, which killed over 200 people, he and his family went into exile in Saudi Arabia in January.

Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution inspired other Arab populations to rise up against repressive regimes in a wave of revolts that has toppled the leaders of Egypt and Libya and continues to rattle regimes in Syria and Yemen.

The constituent assembly will write a new constitution within the next year and appoint a new interim government and interim president to rule until parliamentary and parliamentary elections.

Ennahda, which assures it has no agenda to usher in Islamic law and is committed to gender equality, has already begun talks with other parties on the formation of a unity government.

The party has proposed its secretary-general and party co-founder Hamadi Jebali for interim prime minister.

The head of Ettakatol, Mustafa Ben Jaafar, has been mooted as a possible interim president, as has the leader of the CPR, Moncef Marzouki, former head of the Tunisian Human Rights League.

Tunisians stood in line for hours on Sunday to vote on what kind of country they want to live in after half a century of one-party or strongman rule.

International observers have all praised the elections as free and fair, citing only minor irregularities.

Some of the concerns surrounded the lists put forward by London-based millionaire businessman Hechmi Hamdi, who came out of nowhere to place second in some constituencies, including in Sidi Bouzid.

The election commission said Thursday that his lists in five Tunisian districts and in France had been invalidated because of 'financing irregularities.'