The Islamist Ennahda party that emerged dominant in Tunisia’s first free vote will not seek to impose Sharia-style restraints on a moderate-minded society whose economy relies on Western tourists, analysts say.

The party has said it will seek a coalition on a new 217-member assembly that will rewrite the Constitution and appoint a caretaker government.

Even if it manages to put together a majority alliance to give it a bigger say, Ennahda will have no choice but to toe the line of consensus, said the analysts.

“Ennahda will be mindful not to offend its coalition partners, and also the youth who voted for it, who aspire to a certain way of life,” Issaka Souare, a North African specialist at the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies, said.

“It will need the buy-in of other members of the assembly in all decisions.”

“We would like to reassure our trade and economic partners, and all actors and investors, we hope very soon to have stability and the right conditions for investment in Tunisia,” executive party member Abdelhamid Jlassi told journalists in Tunis.

He stressed the party was open to coalition talks with all parties “without exception”. Most of the other parties on the assembly appear set to be ones with leftist, liberal leanings.

“We respect the rights of women ... and equality between Tunisians whatever their religion, their gender or their social status,” remarked senior Ennahda member Nourreddine Bhiri.

Tunisia, which gave birth to the Arab Spring that claimed its latest dictator on Thursday with the killing of Muammar Gaddafi, saw its neighbour to the east adopt Islamic Sharia law on Sunday as the basis of all the new regime’s laws.

Ennahda founder Rached Ghannouchi in the 1970s called for the strict application of Sharia law in Tunisia to restore order in a society he said had become depraved.

But he has toned down his discourse in recent years.

Last month, he was quoted as saying: “The code of personal status and women’s rights cannot be touched. Women make up half of society and we need their votes.”

Secularists, women’s groups and other detractors accuse En-nahda of being moderate in public and radical in the mosques.

Whatever its programme, “there is no chance that Ennahda will be able to dictate its laws into the new Constitution, even with a coalition,” remarked Tunisian historian Faycal Cherif.

Early results

Tunisia’s Islamist Ennahda party started coalition talks with leftist groups for a new executive yesterday as early results showed it dominating the Arab Spring’s first free election.

Ennahda took 15 of the 39 seats in five domestic polling districts including the key cities of Sousse and Sfax for a new constitution-writing assembly, the ISIE elections body announced, stressing the provisional nature of the tally.

Massive numbers of voters turned out on Sunday to elect a new 217-member assembly that will rewrite the constitution, appoint an interim government, and will have interim authority to write laws and pass budgets.

Results released on Monday showed Ennahda taking half of the 18 seats reserved for expatriate assembly representatives in an early vote held abroad last week.

This meant Ennahda had 24 of the 57 seats accounted for so far. The interim results placed the leftist Congress for the Republic (CPR) in second place with six seats, followed by five for the Petition for Justice and Development – a grouping backed by London-based millionaire businessman Hachmi Haamdi with close ties to ousted dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali.

Ettakatol got four seats, prompting Ben Jafaar to proclaim himself willing to “assume the highest responsibility” in an interim executive. A broad-based executive was required, he added, to avoid “polarisation between Islamists and modernists”.

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