Protesters angered by a local outcome in Tunisia’s first free election burned a central government building on Friday in the impoverished town of Sidi Bouzid, which is widely regarded as the birthplace of the Arab Spring.

Thick smoke billowed from the building, a large courtroom and police complex, as tires burned in the street. Security forces did not move to control the situation initially, news agencies and local news media reported, as hundreds of protesters occupied a central square and chanted against the government.

“The revolution is ours and you can’t take it from us,” some chanted, according to a translation by the local news site Tunisia Live. Earlier, men ransacked a local office of Ennahda, the moderate Islamist party that won the most seats in Sunday’s elections, according to video posted online on Thursday and broadcast by Al Jazeera. Security forces eventually fired into the air to disperse the crowd on Friday, The Associated Press reported. There were no reports of injuries.

The violence appeared to be set off by a local election issue, rather than displeasure at the broader results of the national vote. Supporters of Hachmi Hamdi, a former member of the ousted government, saw their votes nullified after his party, the Popular List, was removed from the ballot over accusations of campaign finance violations.