At around 10pm Tunisian time - 8am in Canberra, Australia - Najia Oun made history. Walking into a polling booth and dropping a little piece of paper into a transparent ballot box, she became the first person to vote in her country's first ever free elections.

Afterwards, she turned to a waiting camera and paid tribute to Mohammed Bouazizi, the fruit and vegetable seller whose self-immolation sparked the revolution. Expressing her hope that Tunisia would "be better" in future, she said: "To those Tunisians who are still hesitating about voting, I tell them 'Please, don't miss this opportunity - go and vote!' I hope the elections will help our dream of a better Tunisia come true."

In more than 80 countries across the world, polling booths will open today to allow for expatriate Tunisians to vote. Between them, they will choose 18 of the 217 constituent assembly members. France, the former colonial power, has ten of these; Italy three; Germany one; North America and the rest of Europe two; and other Arab nations two.

In Britain, where there are 4,700 potential voters, booths are open in Birmingham, Edinburgh, London and Manchester, according to the ISIE electoral commission.

In France, voters have been tweeting all morning. 27-year-old Amira Yahyaoui, head of an independent list of candidates in the Northern France constituency, wrote: [I] voted with hands trembling and tears flowing. Yes, we're going to have this democratic Tunisia!" Kamel Jendoubi, chairman of the ISIE and an historic opposition figure, is expected to vote in Paris.

Speaking at a press conference this morning at the Palais de Congrès, Mohamed Fadhel Mahfoudh of the ISIE said that voting was expected to be "very normal" in Canada, home to around 16,000 Tunisians. The run-up to the vote, however, has not been straightforward: the Canadian government initially rejected the idea that its country could be treated as a 'constituency' in a foreign election. Citing national sovereignty concerns, Ottawa said it would only allow expat Tunisians to cast absentee ballots. Now an agreement has been reached according to which voting will take place in diplomatic venues.

Mahfoudh said: "The Canadian authorities have finally straightened out the problem and we have been able to open a consulate bureau in Montreal and in the Tunisian embassy in the capital of Canada." He added that voting would now proceed "with the encouragement of the Canadian authorities."