Nidaa Tounes ahead in Tunisia parliamentary vote

Tunisia’s secular party Nidaa Tounes says it is in the lead in the country’s recently held elections for its 217-member parliament.

News ID: 60898

Date: 27 October 2014 - 16:00

According to a Nidaa Tounes source, a preliminary count shows that the party has won more than 80 seats against 67 seats for the ruling al-Nahda party in the vote, which was held on Sunday.

“We have positive indications that Nidaa Tounes could be leading,” the party’s leader Beji Caid Essebsi said.

Election authorities are expected to announce the official results later on Monday.

If the preliminary results are confirmed, it will be a setback for the ruling al-Nahda party, which won most seats in the 2011 elections following the ouster of Tunisia’s former dictator Zine el-Abidine Bin Ali.

Critics have accused al-Nahda of mismanaging the country’s economy and its militancy problem.

Nearly 60 percent of the 5.2 million registered voters participated in Tunisian parliamentary elections.

The parliament will be Tunisia’s first five-year legislature since the ouster of Bin Ali in the 2011 revolution.

More than 13,000 candidates started their official electoral campaigns around three weeks ago for the country’s National Constituent Assembly (NCA).

Major parties campaigned for the election on the platform of fighting unemployment and strengthening the economy.

Source: PressTV