In a region gripped by jihadist violence, civil war and the return of authoritarian rule, Tunisia's parliamentary election on October 26th was an exception on many counts. Alone among the countries that saw popular revolts in the "Arab Spring" of 2011, it has remained on a path to democracy. Seemingly against the trend of Arab politics, voters inflicted a firm rebuke on Islamists and instead gave victory to the secularist coalition known as Nidaa Tounes. And the defeated Islamists of the Nahda party bowed peacefully before the verdict. A stint out of power, said its leader, Rached Ghannouchi, could be salutary. Nidaa Tounes ("Tunisian Call") won 85 of the 217 seats in parliament, against 69 for Nahda ("Awakening"). Nahda can still count on loyalists nationwide and has an organisational reach that is envied by other parties. Nevertheless, voters have been unimpressed by the Islamists' two years at the helm of government, in 2012-13, particularly its inability to pull the economy out of stagnation and its failure to quash the emergence of violent jihadism. Senior Nahda figures concede that the job of running the country proved to be harder than they had expected.
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