This Sunday, Tunisians will elect 217 members of an assembly that is tasked with drafting the nation's new constitution, as well as paving the way for legislative elections, and possible presidential elections in 2012.
The assembly will run the country for a year.
Parties are required to put the same amount of female as male candidates in the polls. However, only those at the top of the lists – there are over 10,000 candidates – stand a chance of election, with around 5 per cent fronted by women, Bloomberg reports.
There is about a dozen parties vying for prominence, with experts predicting their candidates will gather most of the seats.
ISLAMIST FAVOURITES
One party stands out – Nahda, a relatively 'mainstream' Islamist party. Polling suggests it will win between 20 and 30 per cent of the vote. The party has been banned for years- despite being allowed to stand in 1989: it faced further crackdowns after the party proved too popular to handle for the former regime.
Nahda wants a single-house parliamentary system led by the winners of the party that wins the most seats in an election. It's seeking more executive powers for the office of Prime Minister, but it likely won't get the majority it needs in the poll.
DEMOCRATIC PLEDGE
Despite facing criticism in parts of the media, Nahda's leader Rachid Ghannouchi has firmly pledged to uphold multi-party democracy. It's also promised to preserve the long-standing 'family code' which puts women on an equal footing with men when it comes to work, education and divorce.
While Salafist Muslims have made themselves heard in Tunisia in recent months - not least since attacking the home of a TV executive - Nahda calmed some nerves of some secular critics by condemning the attack.
Should Nahda fail to win a majority, it will have to form a coalition – but several opponents have said they will refuse to side with it.
THE PROGRESSIVES
Other parties want a presidential system with a legislative assembly, rather than a single parliament – a position some have reportedly colluded over.
There's the centrist Democratic Progressive Party which has strong support amongst many business people, but which has fewer female candidates than the left-wing secularists of the Democratic Modernist Pole (PDM), where women front half the lists.
There's also the Modernist Pole which is strongly opposed to dealing with Nahda.
The UPL, or Free Patriotic Union, is a party fronted by a man accused of wanting to become 'Tunisia's Berlusconi', businessman Slim Riahi. The party's come under fire for its big spending advertising campaigns.
Ettakatol, a social-democratic party, is talking of a government of national unity, and could become the bridge-builders when the new assembly tries to agree on a president, PM and cabinet .
