Tunisians cast their votes for a new parliament in the second free election since the fall of dictator Ben Ali during 2011's Arab Spring. (Reuters)

Tunisians cast their votes for a new parliament in the second free election since the fall of dictator Ben Ali during 2011's Arab Spring. (Reuters)

Tunisians voted Sunday for their first five-year parliament since they overthrew their dictator in the 2011 revolution that kicked off the Arab Spring, and the main secular party declared an early victory over the once-dominant Islamists.

Although official results will not be ready before Wednesday, Nida Tunis (Tunisia’s Call) said pollsters and its own research showed that it came in first place. But the powerful Islamist Ennahda party cautioned against jumping to conclusions.

The election commission put the turnout at 60 percent of the 5.2 million registered voters.

Tunisia is widely seen as the country with the best chance for democracy in the Arab world, but the past 31 / 2 years have been marked by political turmoil, terrorist attacks and economic woes.

Beji Caid Essebsi, the 87-year-old leader of Nida Tunis, said soon after polls closed that “there are positive signs we may be first.”

Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki casts his ballot at a polling station in Sousse, Tunisia, on Oct. 26. (Ali Louati/AP)

His prediction was backed up by exit polls conducted by the private, Tunisia-based Sigma Conseil institute, which gave his party 37 percent of the 217-seat body and said Ennahda got 26 percent.

The Islamist party, which took nearly half of the seats in the 2011 election and ran the country for two years, said it would not engage in “speculation and premature announcements.”

President Obama called Tunisia’s vote a milestone in the country’s historic political transition.

“In casting their ballots today, Tunisians continued to inspire people across their region and around the world,” he said in a statement.

Voting began early in the morning and was widely described as well organized and orderly.

“We are proud to vote. It’s our duty as citizens, and I am optimistic,” said Zeinab Turabi, a lawyer in the affluent Tunis neighborhood of Soukra.

Some Tunisians were less optimistic. Observers said turnout in the slum of Douar Hicher was light, lower than in 2011.

“It didn’t get better after 2011, but we still voted in 2014 hoping that it will. But if it doesn’t, then no one will vote again,” said Ali Mbeet, a pizza restaurant worker who complained about rising ­prices and a scarcity of jobs.

Despite a bewildering array of candidates, the contest seemed to boil down to those who still believed the Islamists could deliver a prosperous future and those who want Nida Tunis to defeat them.

The party that gains the most seats in parliament has the right to form a government. A presidential election will be held in November.