(CNN) -- What happened in Tunisia in the last nine months is momentous, an ongoing event of real historical importance. When in January of this year Zine el Abidine Ben Ali left the country after he indulged in a 'Presidency' that lasted almost 24 years, Tunisians were hopeful, yet also slightly anxious about the future. Now they have voted in the first free and fair elections in the country's history. Voter turnout has reportedly been very high. International observers confirmed that the electoral process has been sound. Tunisians have rallied around these elections as a focal point for a new chapter in their history. The Islamically oriented Ennahda has won more seats than any other party. Previously banned, the party is heavily influenced by the ideas of Rachid Ghannouchi who returned to Tunisia from exile in London earlier this year. If at the beginning of his political career, Ghannouchi flirted with rather more radical forms of Islamism, including the revolutionary model in Iran, he made it clear upon his arrival in Tunis that he should not be compared to Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic revolution of 1979.
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Moderate Islamist party Ennahda wins plurality of votes in Tunisia election
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Adib-Moghaddam: Election signals shift from ideological Islam to civic Islam
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Adib-Moghaddam: Time of one-man dictatorships in region is over
During this process of confrontation between state and society, Islamic politics have been transformed from revolutionary Islamism which peaked in Iran in 1979 to the emergence of a post-modern, secularised, democratic, civic @placeholder that is a part of the political mix in Muslim-majority societies today.