Tunisia’s Islamist Party “Ennahdha” Ranks First In Parliamentary Elections

 Rached Ghannouchi

TUNIS, Oct 10 (NNN-TAP) – Tunisia’s Islamist party “Ennahdha” (Renaissance), ranked first in Tunisian parliamentary elections by winning 52 seats, the Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE) said, on Wednesday evening.

The Heart of Tunisia party came second, with 38 seats out of 217 seats in the Assembly of People’s Representatives (parliament), despite its leader, Nabil Karoui, was in prison for suspicion of money laundering and tax evasion.

“Out of a total of over seven million registered voters, more than three million voted in the elections,” the ISIE President, Nabil Baffoun, said.

The Tunisian electoral authority registered 49,704 rejected ballots and 26,403 blank ballots.

The announcement of the preliminary results coincided with the release of Karoui, almost an hour earlier, after more than a month of detention.