Former Egyptian prime minister Ahmed Shafiq on Sunday said that he would not be a candidate in this year’s presidential election, reversing a previous pledge to stand.
His decision to step aside is likely to pave the way for the poll to be dominated by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi.
The Egyptian National Elections Authority is today expected to announce a date for the election.
Photo: AFP
Shafiq’s decision not to stand came after he was returned to Egypt last month from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where he had lived in exile since 2012.
“I have decided to not run in the upcoming 2018 presidential elections,” Shafiq said in a statement posted online. “I saw that I will not be the best person to lead the country in the coming period.”
Shafiq was appointed prime minister by then-Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak shortly before he was toppled in 2011.
He was seen as a main challenger for al-Sisi who has not yet officially announcing his candidacy, but is expected to cruise to a new term.
“His withdrawal from the elections might be leaving the scene void of any strong personality that can challenge President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi,” Cairo University political science professor Mustapha Kamel al-Sayyid said.
Shafiq announced his plan to stand on Nov. 29 last year in video from the UAE, saying that it seemed Egypt needed “new blood” to face “many problems in all aspects of life.”
After angering his Emirati hosts by saying in a video first aired by al-Jazeera that he was being prevented from leaving the country, his aides said he was deported on Dec. 2.
After arriving in Egypt, Shafiq disappeared for about 24 hours before reemerging to tell a talk show host he was reconsidering his bid for the presidency.
Shafiq on Sunday appeared to have dramatically changed his tune on the situation in Egypt.
Being in exile “may have kept me away from carefully following updates in the homeland, of progress and accomplishments,” he said.
Shafiq narrowly lost out on the presidency in 2012 to former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi.
After the election he was tried in absentia on corruption charges, and was eventually acquitted.
“Shafiq was considered a strong potential candidate to challenge President [al-] Sisi as he enjoyed popularity when he ran in the 2012 presidential elections,” Sayyid said.
“Perhaps many people are nostalgic for the days of Hosni Mubarak, who see Shafiq as a continuation of Mubarak’s rule. That’s why it was expected he would attract a large number of voters,” he said.
Other potential candidates might not be able to be muster similar interest, Sayyid added.
Such candidates include Khaled Ali, a rights lawyer and presidential candidate in 2012 who challenged the government over Red Sea islands Egypt gave to Saudi Arabia.
Ali in November last year announced his intention to stand again, but he was sentenced in September in absentia to three months in jail on accusations of “offending public decency” in relation to a photograph that appeared to show him making an obscene gesture while celebrating a court ruling in the case of the islands’ transfer to Saudi Arabia.
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