By Ayman Gamali
TUNIS
Tunisia's Islamist Ennahda movement has said that it would name the presidential candidate who it plans to support in upcoming polls sometime next week.
In a Monday statement, Ennahda said that its shura council would meet next week to name the candidate behind which it plans to throw its support in polls slated for November 23.
Ennahda called on Tunisia's various political camps to agree on a consensus candidate "to spare the country shocks and divisions" and to "meet the challenges" the young democracy faces.
The Islamist movement will refrain from fielding a presidential candidate drawn from within its own ranks.
Ennahda came in second in last month's parliamentary election with 69 seats, trailing the centrist Nidaa Tounes party, which clinched 85 assembly seats.
Later this month, Tunisia's roughly 5.2 million eligible voters will choose a president from among 27 candidates in the final step of the country's transitional phase, which began following the ouster of long-serving president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in the wake of a 2011 popular uprising.
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