Tunisia’s secular Nidaa Tounes won landmark parliamentary elections, results showed Thursday, beating the ruling party, Ennahda in a vote that raised hopes of a peaceful transition in the birthplace of the Arab Spring.

Tunisia's secular Nidaa Tounes won landmark parliamentary elections, results showed Thursday, beating the ruling party, Ennahda  in a vote that raised hopes of a peaceful transition in the birthplace of the Arab Spring.

Sunday's election has been hailed as a victory for democracy in the North African nation, which touched off the so-called Arab Spring when protests drove longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali from power in 2011.

Tunisians hope the election, and a presidential vote on November 23, will provide much-coveted stability, nearly four years after the revolution.

Nidaa Tounes -- an eclectic coalition of left and center-right politicians, opposition figures and senior people from the ousted Ben Ali regime -- won 85 of 217 seats, the ISIE election body told a press conference.

Ennahda party, which had run Tunisia in coalition with other parties for much of the time since Ben Ali's downfall, took 69 seats.

With an outright majority of 109 seats virtually out of the question once final results are issued, political horse-trading has already begun on forming a coalition.

Under Tunisia's electoral system, a party that gains the largest number of votes but falls short of a majority is given a mandate to form a coalition government.

But there is no natural alliance among the various parties, and press reports have suggested a grand coalition between the two top vote-getters may be possible.