If Islamists can win in Tunisia, the most secular of all Arab countries, they can win anywhere.

(Emirates 24/7) — Tunisia’s main Islamist party claimed on Monday to have captured about 40 per cent of the vote in the country’s first free polls, as the cradle of the Arab Spring basked in praise for its democratic revolution.

Official results were only due on Tuesday but provisional results released by some media outlets appeared to confirm Ennahda’s prediction that it would be the dominant force in Tunisia’s constituent assembly.

The leader of the secular centre-left PDP party, tipped as Ennahda’s main challengers before the vote, conceded defeat.

“The trend is clear. The PDP is badly placed. It is the decision of the Tunisian people. I bow before their choice,” leader Maya Jribi said at her party’s headquarters.

Tunisians turned out en masse Sunday to elect an assembly seen as the custodian of the pro-democracy revolution that brought dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali’s 23-year-old rule to a crushing end nine months ago.

“We are not far from 40 per cent. It could be a bit more or a bit less, but we are sure to take 24 (of the 27) voting districts,” Samir Dilou, a member of Ennahda’s political bureau said, quoting “our sources”.