TUNIS, Tunisia • Millions of Tunisians cast votes on Sunday for an assembly to draft a new constitution, in a burst of pride and hope that after inspiring the regional revolt that is still shaking the Arab world, their small country could now lead the way to democracy.

"Tunisians showed the world how to make a peaceful revolution without icons, without ideology, and now we are going to show the world how we can build a real democracy," Marcel Marzouki, founder of a liberal political party and former dissident exile, said as he waited in a long line outside a polling place in the coastal town of Sousse.

"This will have a real impact in places like Libya and Egypt and Syria, after the fall of its regime. The whole Arab world is watching."

Ten months of anxiety and street protests have passed since the sudden uprising that forced the former president, the autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, to flee the country.

Now, Tunisians standing in orderly lines to vote expressed confidence that, for the first time in their history, an honest count of their ballots would determine the country's future.

Many were sure their votes would change Tunisia for the better, regardless of who won, and some predicted an almost magical transformation.

"There is going to be social justice, freedom, democracy, and they are going to tackle the unemployment issue," said Mohamed Fezai, 30, an unemployed college graduate.

"Today is the day of independence," said Amin Ganhouba, 30, a technician. "Today we got our freedom, and our dignity, from the simple act of voting."

At least one woman celebrated a vote she cast at random. Fatima Toumi, 52, an illiterate housewife, said, beaming with pride, that she had done her civic duty but did not know which party's box she had checked.

"Whatever I pick doesn't matter," she said. "I hope it will improve the situation of Tunisia's youth."

Moderates favored

Tunisia's moderate Islamist party, Ennahda, was widely expected to win at least a plurality of the vote, and its founder, Rachid Ghannouchi, declared last week that it would win a majority. Many voters said that in the final days of the campaign the essential choice came down to a vote for Ennahda or against it.

Ennahda had a long history of opposition to the dictatorship before Ben Ali's persecution eviscerated it in the 1990s, and its leaders have said that they hope to establish a durable, pluralistic democracy.

They cite the model of Turkey, a secular democracy now governed by a party with an Islamic identity. Ennahda has also pledged to form a unity government with Tunisia's liberal parties that would rule by consensus until democratic institutions are well established.

From luxury resorts to the most crowded slums, the voting appeared to run smoothly. The interim government deployed Tunisian solders to watch over polling places from the outside, and voters waited patiently in long lines for an hour or more in many locations.

In less affluent and more culturally conservative precincts, voters voluntarily segregated themselves into one line for men and another for women.

Tunisia is using a proportional representation, or "list," system that allocates seats to candidates on the basis of votes for their party roster, so that the names listed first have the best chance of winning seats. Voting rules required each party to alternate men and women on its roster of candidates so that half the candidates were women.

But Tunisian newspapers reported Sunday that the parties had put women at the top of fewer than one in 10 district lists.

The uprising that unseated Ben Ali began when the fruit vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in the impoverished inland town of Sidi Bouzid in an act of protest at his lack of opportunity and the disrespect of the police.

On Sunday, his mother, Manoubia Bouazizi, 53, called the elections "a moment of victory for my son, who died defending dignity and liberty."

"Nothing would have happened if my son had not reacted against voicelessness and a lack of respect," she said in an interview with Reuters.

"I hope the people who are going to govern will be able to keep this message in mind and give consideration to all Tunisians, including the poor."

Noting the revolts still raging across the Arab world that were set off by her son's immolation, she added, "He is no longer the son of Tunisia, he is the son of the whole world."