Tunis: Campaigning comes to a close in Tunisia at midnight, a day before its first democratic elections in the birthplace of the Arab Spring.
Tunisians will vote on Sunday for a constituent assembly that will rewrite the constitution and appoint a president who will form a new government to lead the country for the duration of the drafting process, expected to take a year.
More than 100 political parties will contest the polls, most of them leftist, but top left-wing leaders have ruled out a pre-vote alliance.
For the first time in history, the election is organised by an independent electoral commission, which is expected to announce the preliminary results on Monday.
Fears that polls would be a day of violence and chaos have been dismissed by officials who said that up to 51,000 men and women in uniform would be deployed at the voting centres to ensure they remain trouble-free.
