Tunisians were voting Sunday in an election seen as pivotal to establishing democracy in the cradle of the Arab Spring uprisings, with security forces deploying heavily to avert extremist attacks.
Polls opened at 7 am (0600 GMT) and were due to close at 6 pm (1700 GMT).
The North African nation has been hailed as a beacon of hope compared with other chaos-hit countries like Libya and Egypt where regimes were also toppled.