Tunisia’s moderate Islamist Ennahda party has won the country’s first democratic elections after the Arab Spring uprisings, officials say.

They say official results show that Ennahda won more than 41% of the vote, securing 90 seats in the 217-member parliament.

Ennahda has already said it wants to form a new government within a month.

The poll last Sunday took place nine months after the ouster of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.

Tunisia’s election chief Kamel Jandoubi announced the results at a news conference in Tunis on Thursday evening.

Mr Jandoubi said that the Congress for the Republic (CPR) - the country’s biggest secularist party - was the runner-up in the elections with nearly 14%, winning 30 seats in parliament.

The leftist Ettakatol party came third with almost 10%, giving them 21 seats.

Ennahda, which was banned under the former regime, says it has modelled itself on the governing AK party in Turkey, another Muslim-majority country which has remained a secular state.

It has sought to reassure secularists and investors, nervous about the prospect of Islamists holding power in one of the Arab world’s most liberal countries, by saying it would not ban alcohol, stop tourists wearing bikinis on the beaches or impose Islamic banking.

Foreign tourism is a major source of revenue for Tunisia.