Islamists win Tunisia's elections: Tunisia's moderate Islamist Ennahda party has won the country's first democratic elections prompted by the Arab Spring uprisings, poll officials say.
Ennahda has already said it wants to form a new government within a month.
Violent protests broke out in the central town of Sidi Bouzid after the election results were announced, witnesses say.
Reports say police used tear gas to disperse hundreds of people, who were protesting against the elimination of a political party from the poll last Sunday.
The election took place nine months after President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali was ousted.
Reassuring investors
Tunisia's election chief Kamel Jandoubi presented the results at a news conference in Tunis on Thursday night.
Mr Jandoubi said that the Congress for the Republic (CPR) - the country's biggest secularist party - was the runner-up in the elections with nearly 14%, winning 30 seats in parliament.
The leftist Ettakatol party came third with almost 10%, giving them 21 seats.
Ennahda, which was banned under the former regime, says it has modelled itself on the governing AK party in Turkey, another Muslim-majority country which has remained a secular state.
Tunisia's Islamists promise there will be no bans on bikinis and alcohol
Ennahda has put forward its number two, Secretary General Hamadi Jebali, as the next prime minister. Coalition talks with the CPR and Ettakatol parties have already begun.
Mr Jebali, 62, is an engineer by training and a former journalist. He was a co-founder of Ennahda.
The party has sought to reassure secularists and investors, nervous about the prospect of Islamists holding power in one of the Arab world's most liberal countries, by saying it would not ban alcohol, stop tourists wearing bikinis on the beaches or impose Islamic banking.
Tunisia's moderate Islamist Ennahda party has won the country's first democratic elections after the Arab Spring uprisings, officials say.
They say official results show Ennahda won more than 41% of the vote, securing 90 seats in the 217-member parliament. Ennahda has already said it wants to form a new government within a month.
Violent protests broke out in the central town of Sidi Bouzid after the election results were announced, witnesses say.
Reports say police used tear gas to disperse hundreds of people, who were protesting against the elimination of a political party from the poll last Sunday.
The election took place nine months after President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali was ousted.
Reassuring investors
Tunisia's election chief Kamel Jandoubi presented the results at a news conference in Tunis on Thursday night.
Mr Jandoubi said that the Congress for the Republic (CPR) - the country's biggest secularist party - was the runner-up in the elections with nearly 14%, winning 30 seats in parliament.
The leftist Ettakatol party came third with almost 10%, giving them 21 seats.
Ennahda, which was banned under the former regime, says it has modelled itself on the governing AK party in Turkey, another Muslim-majority country which has remained a secular state.
Tunisia's Islamists promise there will be no bans on bikinis and alcohol Mr Jebali, 62, is an engineer by training and a former journalist. He was a co-founder of Ennahda.
The party has sought to reassure secularists and investors, nervous about the prospect of Islamists holding power in one of the Arab world's most liberal countries, by saying it would not ban alcohol, stop tourists wearing bikinis on the beaches or impose Islamic banking.
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