UPDATE - Tunisia postpones presidential poll to Nov. 17

CLARIFIES NEW ELECTION DATE; CHANGES HEADLINE, LEDE, CHANGES THROUGHOUT

By Adil Essabiti

TUNIS (AA) – Tunisia's official electoral commission on Friday announced that presidential polls slated for Nov. 10 would be pushed back one week to Nov. 17, according to the Tunisian Press Agency.

“Numerous political parties and civil society groups requested that the date of the poll be changed so as not to conflict with a major Muslim holiday,” the news agency quoted Nabil Baffoun, head of the electoral commission, as saying.

Earlier this week, residents of Tunisia’s southern city of Kairouan staged demonstrations to demand that the date of the polls be changed so as not to conflict with Moulid al-Nabi (the birthday of Prophet Muhammad), which this year will fall on Nov. 10.