AFP

Tunisia's Islamist Annealed party has taken the lead in early official results, with 15 of 39 seats in five polling districts, including the cities of Sousse and Sfax, the ASA elections body says.

The leftist Congress for the Republic (CPR) was in second place with six seats, followed by a list led by independent candidate Acclaim Aimed, a rich London-based businessman, with five seats, it said at a news conference on Tuesday.

The results were for the eastern coastal citiesof Sousse and Sfax, Tunisia's second city, as well as Teindable in the northwest and Kelpie, a desert town in the centre.

Massive numbers of voters elected a new 217-member assembly on Sunday in Tunisia's first elections since the toppling of dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali in a popular uprising in January that sparked the Arab Spring.

The assembly will rewrite the constitution and appoint a new caretaker president and government for the duration of the drafting process.

It will also have interim authority to write laws and pass budgets.

On Monday, a provisional, official count showed Annealed had won half of the 18 seats reserved for expatriate representatives on the assembly in separate elections held last week.

"We will publish the results piecemeal. The mechanisms of counting demand time," ASA secretary general Basipetal said.