Anti-Islamist party looks to win Tunisia elections

TUNIS, Tunisia — Tunisia's main secular opposition party claimed victory Monday over once-dominant Islamists in the country's historic parliamentary elections.

Partial results from the official election commission will be released throughout the day, but the Nida Tunis or Tunis Calls party cited exit polls to say it had won more seats than any other party in the 217-member parliament.

Polls indicate Tunis Calls won 80 seats, Aida Klibi, a party spokeswoman, said.

Exit polls give Nida Tunis 37% of the seats to 26% for the moderate Islamist Ennahda Party. If the vote count confirms the polls, it would be a dramatic reversal for the Islamists, which had ruled the country for two stormy years in a coalition with two other liberal parties.

Ennahda acknowledged that Nida Tunis "probably" won more seats than any other party.

"We have a picture forming and we are not as optimistic as last night," said Yusra Ghannouchi, a spokeswoman for the party.

The election, which turned out 60% of Tunisia's 5.2 million registered voters, will produce the nation's first five-year parliament following the country's 2011 Arab Spring revolt and has won praise around the world.

"This milestone in Tunisia's transition to democracy exemplifies why Tunisia remains a beacon of hope, not only to the Tunisian people, but to the region and the world," Secretary of State John Kerry said.

The peaceful and orderly election on Sunday was also lauded by the European Union and France.

Nida Tunis, created as an explicit counterbalance to the Islamists after their 2011 election victory, has drawn support from business people, trade unionists and many politicians from the deposed dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's government.

They seek to evoke the heritage of Tunisia's first post-independence president Habib Bourguiba with his focus on education and modernization, while playing down the one-party state that had governed Tunisia for half a century.

Since many of its members served in pre-revolution governments, the party claims to have the necessary experience to solve Tunisia's economic problems and bring stability.

During the two years the Ennahda-led government held power, the country was battered by rising inflation, a weak economy and the growing power of radical Islamists who mounted attacks on politicians and soldiers.

The party was criticized for not managing the economy well and being too soft on radicals.

While the Islamist-led government eventually stepped down at the end of 2013 in favor of a technocratic Cabinet, it did oversee the passing of a new constitution described as the most progressive in the region.

___

Associated Press writer Bouazza ben Bouazza contributed to this report.