Magharebia

More than 40,000 police and soldiers will mobilise around Tunisia Sunday for the first Arab Spring elections, officials said ahead of the historic vote. With three days to go until Tunisia's first democratic elections, roadblocks have been stepped up and patrols are already guarding some 7,000 polling stations countrywide, AFP reported Thursday (October 20th).

"The elections will take place in the best security conditions; one mustn't believe rumours to the contrary," interior ministry Hichem Meddeb said.

On Wednesday, the front-running Islamist Ennahda party warned that the polls risked being rigged and vowed a fresh uprising if this were the case. Other parties reacted by calling for "appeasement", while a leftist grouping claimed its members had been harassed by Islamists in recent weeks.

The elections will be Tunisia's first free vote in two decades.