Tunisians were voting Sunday in an election seen as pivotal to establishing democracy in the cradle of the Arab Spring uprisings, with security forces deploying heavily to avert extremist attacks.

When polls opened at 7 am (0600 GMT), dozens of voters were already queueing outside one polling station in Marseille Street in central Tunis, an AFP correspondent reported.

The North African nation has been hailed as a beacon of hope compared with other chaos-hit countries like Libya and Egypt where regimes were also toppled.

But its transition has been tested at times by militant attacks and social unrest.

On the eve of the polls, Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa warned of possible jihadist attacks aimed at disrupting the country’s first post-revolution parliamentary election.