Tunisia holds its first free elections

TUNIS, Tunisia -- The people who started the Arab Spring shared one of its earliest fruits Sunday: a free election. Tunisians who brought down a dictator nine months ago waited for hours to select those who will help shape their fledgling democracy.

"The old elections were fraudulent and this one is for our children and grandchildren so that even if I soon die, I will be happy and content," said Tayyib Awish, 83, at a crowded school that served as a polling station in Hay al-Tadammon near Tunis, the capital.

Women with headscarves and without, former political prisoners and young people whose Facebook posts helped fuel the revolution also were among those electing a 217-seat assembly that will appoint a new government and then write a new constitution.

Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, president for 23 years, was overthrown Jan. 14 by a monthlong uprising stirred by anger over unemployment, corruption and repression. The uprising inspired similar rebellions across the Arab world. The autocratic rulers of Egypt and Libya have fallen since, but Tunisia is the first country to hold free elections as a result of the upheaval.

President Barack Obama offered congratulations, saying that "less than a year after they inspired the world, the Tunisian people took an important step forward."

The party expected to come out on top is the moderate Islamic movement Ennahda, or renaissance, though no one party is expected to win a majority of assembly seats. An Ennahda victory, especially in a comparatively secular society like Tunisia, could have wide implications for similar religious parties in the region.

Preliminary reports indicate voting went smoothly, with up to 70 percent of registered voters turning up at polling stations. Results might not come until Monday or Tuesday.

Boubaker Ben Thaber, a senior official in the election commission, told Reuters Sunday that turnout exceeded 90 percent among the 4.1 million who registered in advance.

People waited in line for hours to vote under the hot North African sun. In the Tunis suburb of al-Aouina, student and former protester Zeinab Souayah, 18, said, "I'm going to grow up and think back on these days and tell my children about them."