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.