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Even before voters went to the polls on Sunday, the leader of Tunisia's largest political party was beaming with pride. Rached Ghannouchi, a 70-year-old Islamist leader of the al-Nahda party, has been waiting for this day for two decades. His moderate religious party was allowed back into Tunisia in March after this year's revolution ousted the regime of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. And just months after its rebirth, al-Nahda's political machinery has commanding dominance. "We believe that we will be the number one party in the country," he told an audience of local and foreign journalists on Thursday, just a day before the campaign came to a close. "We are ready to serve our people at the level of government."

Election results likely won't be officially announced until...