Shortly before he spoke, an Ennahda female candidate who does not wear the Islamic head scarf sang along to Lebanese and Tunisian pop songs on a stage. The party says her inclusion is proof of its moderate outlook.

Tunisia became the birthplace of the “Arab Spring” when Backless Prom Dresses Bouazizi set fire to himself in protest at poverty and government repression. His suicide provoked protests which forced President Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali to flee in January.

The revolution in Tunisia, a former French colony, in turn inspired uprisings which forced out entrenched leaders in Egypt and Libya, and convulsed Yemen and Syria — re-shaping the political landscape of the Middle East.

Defying predictions that Tunisia’s election would lead to violence and clashes Ball Gowns police and a hard-line Islamist minority, Sunday’s vote passed off peacefully. It was applauded by Western monitors.

Only a trickle of official results has so far appeared — unlike votes under Ben Ali when the outcome was announced straight away, probably because it had been pre-determined.

Returns from a handful of districts which completed their counts showed Ennahda had 37 seats in the 217-seat assembly. Its nearest rival, the secularist Congress for the Republic, had 13.

Return from exile

Ennahda’s win is a remarkable turnaround for a group which earlier this was banned and had hundreds of its followers languishing in Ben Ali’s prisons.

Ghannouchi was forced into exile in Britain for 22 years Corset Prom Dresses of harassment by police. A soft-spoken scholar, he dresses in suits and open-necked shirts while his wife and daughter wear the hijab.

Ghannouchi is at pains to stress his party will not enforce any code of morality on Tunisian society, or the millions of Western tourists who holiday on its Mediterranean beaches.

He models his approach on the moderate Islamism of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

In a slick and well-funded campaign, the party tapped into a desire among ordinary Tunisians to be able to express their faith freely after years of aggressively enforced secularism.

It also sought to show it could short prom dresses all Tunisians, including the large minority who take a laissez-faire view of Islam’s strictures, drink alcohol, wear revealing clothes and rarely visit the mosque.