Tunisia voters go to polls in historic free election
The moderate Islamists of Ennahda are the front runners in the election
Voting has begun in Tunisia in the first free election of the Arab Spring, nine months after the fall of former President Zinedine el Abidine Ben Ali.
Voters will elect a 217-seat assembly that will draft a new constitution and appoint an interim government.
Islamist party Ennahda is expected to win the most votes, though it is not clear if it will gain a majority.
Mr Ben Ali fled Tunisia on 14 January amid the first of several mass uprisings across the Arab world.
Campaigning in Tunisia has been marked by concerns over splits between Islamists and secularists, party funding and voter apathy.
But as campaigning drew to a close on Friday, correspondents reported widespread optimism.
The mother of Mohamed Bouazizi, the young man whose self-immolation last December triggered the Tunisian revolt, told the Reuters news agency the election was a victory for dignity and freedom.
At the scene
Many of the people I've spoken to will be voting for the first time in their lives today. That includes people in their 50s and 60s. As one man put it, 'Vote, don't vote, you got Ben Ali anyway'.
Of course, the figures before used to say 80% of Tunisians turned out to vote. I was here in 2004 for elections under Ben Ali; I certainly didn't see many people in the polling stations.
We've been in some polling stations and voting offices where people were working well into the night trying to organise this. One woman said to me, 'The eyes of the world are on Tunisia at the moment'.
A real national effort is going on - an acute awareness that everybody's looking. As one political analyst put it, 'This is the first time Tunisians find out who they really are'.
"Now I am happy that my son's death has given the chance to get beyond fear and injustice," Manoubia Bouazizi said. "I'm an optimist, I wish success for my country."
"I didn't sleep at all last night from excitement," voter Houcine Khlifi, 62, told the AFP news agency on Sunday morning as he was queuing to cast his ballot in central Tunis.
"Tunisia today offers to the world a bouquet of flowers of liberty and dignity."
High expectations
Unlike its eastern neighbour Libya, Tunisia's transition from authoritarian rule has been largely peaceful.
Ennahda, a moderate Islamist party, has sought to allay the fears of Tunisian secularists by stating its commitment to democracy and women's rights.
Its closest challenger is expected to be the secular, centrist Progressive Democratic Party (PDP).
There are more than seven million people of voting age. More than 100 parties have registered to participate, along with a number of independent lists.
Tunisia poll at a glance
- First election since Arab Spring
- More than 100 parties contesting poll
- Voters electing 217-member Constituent Assembly (CA) to write constitution and choose prime minister
- CA expected to have highest female representation in Arab world
- Election organised under proportional representation system
- 3.8 million registered voters
- Non-registered voters with ID cards entitled to vote
- Tunisians in some foreign countries given the vote
- Islamist Ennahda party expected to get most votes
Hundreds of foreign election observers and thousands of local ones will be monitoring the poll.
The EU observer mission has said that the overall campaign has been transparent.
This democratic moment carries an enormous burden of expectation, not just in Tunisia but across the Arab world, says the BBC's Allan Little, in the capital, Tunis.
Tunisians led the Arab Spring; they know the world will be watching this key stage in the transition, he says.
There seems here an overwhelming popular will to succeed, our correspondent adds.
However, in the nine months since Mr Ben Ali was ousted, the economy has worsened as business and tourists stay away.
Polls will close at 19:00 and results are expected by Monday.
The new assembly is expected to draft a new constitution within a year.
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