TUNIS , Tunisia ( CNN ) -- Polls closed late Sunday in Tunisia , the torchbearer of the so-called Arab Spring , but voters will not see results of national elections until Tuesday , officials said . On Sunday , long lines of voters snaked around schools-turned-polling-stations in Tunis 's upscale Menzah neighborhood , some waiting for hours to cast a vote in the nation 's first national elections since the country 's independence in 1956 . `` It 's a wonderful day . It 's the first time we can choose our own representatives , '' said Walid Marrakchi , a civil engineer who waited more than two hours , and who brought along his 3-year-old son Ahmed so he could `` get used to freedom and democracy . '' Tunisia 's election is the first since a popular uprising in January overthrew long-time dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and triggered a wave of revolutions -- referred to as the Arab Spring -- across the region . More than 60 political parties and thousands of independent candidates competed for 218 seats in a new Constitutional Assembly , which will be charged with writing a new constitution and laying the framework for a government system . Voters appeared jubilant on Sunday , taking photos of each other outside polling stations , some holding Tunisian flags . `` It 's a holiday , '' said housewife Maha Haubi , who had just taken her position at the end of the long line of more than 1,000 voters waiting outside an elementary school in Menzah . `` Before we never even had the right to say 'yes ' or 'no . ' '' Nearby , banker Aid Naghmaichi said she did n't mind the long wait to vote . `` We have waited years for this , '' Naghmaichi said . Ali Bergaoui burst out of a classroom waving a Tunisian flag and smiling broadly moments after he voted . He said he and his wife , Miriam , had a sleepless night in anticipation of the vote . They showed up at 7 a.m. when polls officially opened and waited for three hours . `` We waited 50 years for this , '' a triumphant Bergaoui said . Miriam Bergaoui 's eyes filled with tears as she tried to express the emotion of the moment . But partisan politics were already on display here . The Bergaouis both said they came in part to vote against Ennahada , the once-banned moderate Islamist party that consistently scored highest in public opinion polls in the weeks leading up to the election . The campaign period marked an escalation in tension between secular and religious Tunisians . Religious groups staged angry protests that sometimes turned violent at universities and a private TV channel , to show opposition to the broadcast of the animated film `` Persepolis , '' which included a depiction of god . Meanwhile , prominent secular politicians , like the Progressive Democratic Party 's Ahmed Nejib Chebbi campaigned on anti-Ennahada platforms , warning voters that a victory for the party would mark a setback for Tunisia 's development as a secular state . Tunisia 's election -- nearly 9 months since the overthrow of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali -- has been praised by U.S. President Barack Obama . `` Today , less than a year after they inspired the world , the Tunisian people took an important step forward , '' Obama said Sunday . In December , a wave of protests began in Tunisia that led eventually to the ousting of President Ben Ali and his prime minister . Tunisia 's dramatic protests were triggered by a street vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi who set himself on fire to protest government harassment . Bouzazi , who died at the age of 26 , became a symbol for the frustrations of the Arab people , with those frustrations erupting in waves of demonstrations and protests across the region .
`` We waited years for this , '' a voter says . The Tunisian Spring began in Bergaouis . Candidates are competing for More than 60 seats in the Assembly . The the Progressive Democratic Party 's will be charged with writing a new constitution .