Tunisia leans secular as votes are tallied

The secular Nida Tunis (Call of Tunisia) party appeared to be enjoying a slight lead in Tunisia's general election as votes were counted on Monday.

Preliminary ballot counts showed Nida Tunis winning 80 of the 217 seats in the country's new parliament. The Islamist Ennahda (Renaissance) party looked set to win 67.

"We have positive indications that [Nida Tunis] could be leading," party leader Beji Caid Essebsi told reporters on Monday, according to the AFP news agency.

Partial official results are expected later on Monday.

Rachid Ghannouchi, the leader of the Ennahda party, would not speculate on specific numbers but did say on the country's Hannibal television station that "whoever comes out top, Nidaa or Ennahda, the main thing is that Tunisia needs a government of national unity, a political consensus. This is the policy that has saved the country from what other Arab Spring countries are going through."

Multiple challenges

Although seen as a beacon of hope compared to neighboring nations where regimes were also toppled in the Arab Spring, Tunisia is grappling with poverty and unemployment, as well as militant attacks and social unrest.

The moderate Islamist Ennahda party won the 2011 vote. Several smaller parties are also likely to win seats in Sunday's election.

Some 80,000 troops and police were deployed by authorities on election day. On Friday, police stormed a house in a Tunis suburb after a stand-off with suspected militants. Seven people were reported killed - a policeman and six suspects, five of them women.

Full results are could take as long as until October 30 to be released. Presidential elections are set to take place in November.

The election organizing committee put the turnout in Sunday's poll at 61.8 percent.

mz/tj (AFP, Reuters, AP, dpa)