Tunisia’s secular Nidaa Tounes party won the most seats in a milestone parliamentary vote, dealing a blow to Islamists who had prevailed since the 2011 ouster of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Nidaa Tounes, based on an unofficial count at individual polling stations, secured 83 seats compared to 68 by the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, a party official said by phone, declining to be identified because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media before the election commission announces the results tomorrow. Ennahda senior party official Lotfi Zitoune confirmed his party came in second.

The initial results from yesterday’s vote for Tunisia’s first five-year parliament since the uprising reflected the tensions that have gripped the country since Ben Ali was toppled. The North African nation that was the birthplace of the Arab Spring uprisings has seen its economy stumble and has been mired in political and security crises amid violence blamed on Islamist militants opposed to democracy.

The new 217-seat parliament will choose the next prime minister to lead the country of 11 million people. The government will replace a caretaker administration that oversaw the adoption of a new constitution heralded by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as a model for post-revolution countries in the region. Presidential elections are scheduled for next month.