An Islamist Victory in Tunisia and the Fate of the Arab Spring

The Takeaway

Tunisia’s moderate Islamist  Ennahda party  appears to be the clear victor of Sunday’s election, winning about a  40 percent plurality  of the vote. In the first democratic election in the nation that ignited the Arab Spring, 90 percent of Tunisians took to the polls to vote on a r a 217 member assembly that will draft a new constitution and appoint a new caretaker government.  An Islamist victory in secular Tunisia could point to a trend in the region. Islamists are poised to make electoral gains in Egypt, and have been dominate in post-Gadhafi Libya. But what kind of future are the Tunisian people voting for? Was this truly the fruits of the Arab Spring; or the beginning of an Islamist revolution? Gordon Gray,  U.S. ambassador to Tunisia, gives his analysis from Tunis.

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