FILE PHOTO: Egypt's former prime minister Ahmed Shafik speaks during an interview with Reuters at his residence in Abu Dhabi February 6, 2013. REUTERS/Jumana El Heloueh/File Photo

CAIRO (Reuters) - Former Egyptian prime minister Ahmed Shafik is no longer considering running for president in this year’s elections, he said in a statement on his Twitter account on Sunday.

Shafik was seen as the most serious potential challenger to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in an election due early in the year, though Sisi has yet to officially announce his candidacy.

Shafik returned to Egypt from the United Arab Emirates in December after announcing his intention to run, setting off a firestorm of criticism from state-aligned media and speculation that he was being held by authorities in a Cairo hotel.

The 76-year-old, an ex-air force commander and former aviation minister, narrowly lost a presidential election to Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Mursi in 2012 before fleeing for the United Arab Emirates, where he has lived since.

Shafik said on Sunday that his time back in Egypt has led him to reconsider the decision.

“My absence of more than five years perhaps distanced me from being able to very closely follow what is going on in our nation in terms of developments and achievements despite the difficulty of the conditions,” the statement said.

“I have seen that I will not be the ideal person to lead the state’s affairs during the coming period. Thus I have decided not to run in the upcoming 2018 presidential elections.” </s> CAIRO - Former Egyptian prime minister Ahmed Shafik is no longer considering running for president in this year's elections, he said in a statement posted on his Twitter account on Sunday.



Shafik, an ex-air force commander, was seen as the most serious potential challenger to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in an election due early in the year, though Sisi has yet to officially announce his candidacy.



"I saw that I will not be the ideal person to lead the state during the coming period. Thus I have decided not to run in the upcoming 2018 presidential elections," Shafik's statement said. </s> A former Egyptian prime minister announced on Sunday that he will not run in the country’s upcoming presidential elections.

Ahmed Shafiq posted on social media that he was not the “ideal person” to lead the country in the days to come.

“For this reason, I have decided not to run in the upcoming 2018 presidential elections,” he added.

The 76-year-old politician made the announcement after a meeting with the general board of his National Movement Party at his house.

Shafiq -- the last prime minister of Egypt’s Mubarak era -- had said earlier that he was planning to run.

He briefly served as prime minister under autocratic President Hosni Mubarak, who stepped down in early 2011 following 18 days of popular demonstrations against his regime.

In Egypt’s first-ever free presidential election in 2012, Shafiq lost -- by a narrow margin -- to Mohamed Morsi, a leader of the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood group. He lived in the United Arab Emirates until recently moving back to Egypt after being deported from the UAE in December. </s> Ahmed Shafik, a former Egyptian prime minister, has said he will not stand for president in the country's upcoming presidential elections.

The 76-year-old had previously announced his plan to run in an exclusive video message to Al Jazeera.

"I saw that I will not be the ideal person to lead the state during the coming period," a statement posted on Shafik's Twitter account read on Sunday.

"Thus I have decided not to run in the upcoming 2018 presidential elections."

Shafik was seen as one of the few people who could potentially challenge President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in the election, scheduled to take place in March.

From Egypt to UAE and back

Shafik was prime minister for one month in 2011, during that year's Arab Spring uprising.

After losing a 2012 election to Mohamed Morsi, Shafik fled to the United Arab Emirates. While in Abu Dhabi, he was placed on trial in absentia in Egypt and found guilty of corruption charges.

He was later acquitted, clearing his path for a potential return to Egypt.

He did so last month after being deported from the UAE - a strong Sisi supporter - for reasons that are still unclear.

With his whereabouts unknown upon his arrival in Egypt's capital, Cairo, Shafik's family members feared he had been "kidnapped" by Egyptian authorities.

However, Shafik denied this in a subsequent TV appearance.

A former air force commander, Shafik was previously thought of as planning to go on a European tour to campaign for his presidential bid among the Egyptian diaspora. </s> FILE PHOTO: Former Prime Minister and presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq attends a news conference in Cairo, Egypt May 14, 2012. Photo: Reuters

JOHANNESBURG – Former Egyptian prime minister Ahmed Shafik has said via his Twitter account he will no longer challenge incumbent President Abdel Fattah El Sisi in this year’s elections.

“I saw that I will not be the ideal person to lead the state during the coming period. Thus I have decided not to run in the upcoming 2018 presidential elections,” Shafik said in a statement posted on the social media site on Sunday.

The former air force commander had been seen as the most serious challenge to Sisi even though the president has not officially announced his candidacy.

Egypt’s National Electoral Commission (NEC) will on Monday afternoon announce the timetable of the country’s upcoming presidential elections – expected in the spring of 2018 – and details of the electoral process.

The independent NEC, established by a presidential decree in August 2017, is a 10-member commission and has sole responsibility for supervising general elections and referendums in Egypt.

The president of Egypt is elected using the two-round system, as outlined in Egypt’s constitution.

Election proceedings are to begin no later than 120 days before the end date of the current presidential term on June 7, 2018, and results will be announced no later than 30 days before the end of the current presidential term.

The last presidential elections were held in May 2014, with Sisi securing 96 percent of the vote against his sole competitor, Hamdeen Sabahi, a leftist and leader of the Egyptian Popular Current party Hamdeen Sabahi. </s> Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat says he doubts there will be genuine competition and indicates he may wait until 2022

The nephew of the assassinated Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat has dramatically announced he will not run in March’s presidential election, blaming an environment of fear surrounding the vote.

After releasing campaign materials over the weekend Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat called a press conference for Monday morning at which it was widely expected that he would announce his candidacy.

Standing in a room in Cairo packed with journalists and adorned with banners bearing his name, he spoke of how he had been preparing for the election since he was expelled from Egypt’s parliament a year ago.



“However, it seems that all of this was not enough,” Sadat said. “My decision not to run primarily has to do with the climate in which you don’t feel there will be a genuine competition or equal opportunities.”

Sadat said he had taken the decision in part to protect his campaign workers from intimidation or arrest. He cited emergency laws in force since last April and a 2013 ban on unauthorised demonstrations as further reasons for his decision.

To his supporters, Sadat is the prodigal son of a prestigious family who has used his status to criticise a draconian regime. To the regime, he has become a rogue outsider.

In an interview with the Guardian on Monday, Sadat indicated that his aborted attempt this year could lay the groundwork for a full campaign in 2022, when Egypt’s incumbent president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, if re-elected this year, would be ineligible to stand again.

“It’s like committing suicide running against someone like this,” he said. “He’s still supported and he has all the ways and means that no one else has. Better to lose a round and stand by and be ready for a second round than bashing your head against a wall.”

“We dream of … an election where the winner is not known until the last moment,” he said.

Sadat was thrown out of parliament last year amid allegations he had leaked official documents to foreign diplomats. He is the second presidential hopeful to pull out of the election, which is virtually certain to be won by Sisi, who has yet to formally announce his candidacy.

Last week Ahmed Shafiq, a former prime minister with ties to Egypt’s military, announced he was dropping out after reportedly being deported from the UAE and held incommunicado for 24 hours on his return home.

Prior to Monday’s announcement, Sadat had faced accusations of legitimising a draconian regime and an undemocratic election with his candidacy.

Speaking to the Guardian, he denied reports that he was approached by Egypt’s military to encourage his candidacy and give the election a veneer of democracy. “It’s not true,” he said, adding that members of the country’s sprawling security infrastructure had not approached him either. “They consider me a devil,” he said.

Sadat has transformed his political profile from a gentle critic of the former regime of Hosni Mubarak to outright dissenter against Sisi. He founded the liberal Reform and Development party in 2009.

His short-lived campaign, run under the heading “The people rule”, was light on policy but heavy on rhetoric, including rare criticism of Sisi’s four-year term. In recent weeks he provided almost singular criticism of the election itself – which is being held under Egypt’s emergency law – and of a petition demanding that Sisi run for a second term, which Sadat said violated campaign rules.

Sisi swept to power in 2013 after a military coup, buoyed by a cult of personality that lasted through the 2014 election where he obtained 97% of the vote. His rule has been marked by a brutal crackdown on freedom of expression and civil liberties, economic turbulence and increasing attacks by jihadi groups.

He has jailed thousands of opponents, mainly Islamists but also secular activists, including many of those involved in the 2011 uprising that toppled Mubarak. Street protests have been effectively banned, human rights groups have been placed under severe restrictions and many critics in the media have been silenced.

True opposition in the election is likely to be thin on the ground. Another potential candidate, Colonel Ahmed Konsawa, was sentenced to six years in prison for releasing a video declaring his intention to run while in military uniform. Khaled Ali, a leftist human rights lawyer, last week reiterated his intention to run despite an ongoing trial in which he stands accused of making an obscene gesture. The trial is due to finish three weeks before the election on 28 March.

Under the constitution, any would-be candidate must have formal “recommendations” from at least 20 politicians or 25,000 support signatures from voters, with a minimum of 1,000 each from 15 of Egypt’s 29 provinces. More than 500 of Egypt’s 596 MPs have already endorsed Sisi.

Others who have voiced their intention to run represent a rare schism within the ruling order. They include the former military chief-of-staff Sami Anan, who rose to the highest ranks of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Armed Forces under Mubarak’s 30-year regime, and Mortada Mansour, an MP considered more rightwing than even Sisi. Mansour announced that his first act as president would be to ban access to Facebook. </s> CAIRO (REUTERS) - The nephew of assassinated Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat said on Monday (Jan 15) he would not, as widely expected, challenge incumbent Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in the presidential election because an environment of fear surrounds the vote.

General Sisi has yet to announce his candidacy but is widely expected to run and easily win a ballot slated for March 26-28.

Mr Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat, whose uncle led a sweeping economic liberalisation programme and opened ties with Israel before his assassination in 1981, had previously said he was mulling a run.

Though unlikely to upset Gen Sisi's campaign, it would have carried the weight of a household name likely to garner some support.

Gen Sisi, a general-turned-president, came to power in 2014, a year after he led the military in ousting elected but unpopular Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.

Rights groups say Gen Sisi has since led an unprecedented crackdown on political opponents, activists and critical media.

In a news conference accompanied by detailed election brochures and a video supporting his would-be campaign, Mr Sadat announced that he had halted his run, denouncing what he called an election environment of fear where state-aligned media had pushed out opposing voices.

"Our real problem is can we, in this current environment and with what's happening now, move forward? I don't think so... so we've decided that we will not participate."

Mr Sadat said he feared for the safety of supporters who had volunteered to collect votes of confidence required to appear on the ballot.

"People who volunteered to collect votes of confidence were scared away... I'm scared for the young men and women and don't want to expose them to this, because we won't be able to do anything for them," he said.

Last week, Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik, seen as the most serious potential challenger to date, said he was no longer considering a bid following a firestorm of criticism from state-aligned media and speculation that he was being held by authorities in a Cairo hotel.

Gen Sisi's critics say his popularity has been dimmed by painful economic reforms, security problems and a crackdown on dissidents. Still, he is expected to readily win an election that has seen few serious challengers come forward. </s> A former Egyptian lawmaker says he has decided not to run in the presidential election in March, saying the political "climate" isn't conducive to campaigning.

Mohammed Anwar Sadat, nephew of Egypt's late leader Anwar Sadat, told reporters on Monday that his decision was partially taken to protect his campaign workers from intimidation or arrest by authorities.

He said he "will not contest a lost battle" while also citing emergency laws and a ban on demonstrations as further reasons for his decision.

Sadat, an outspoken critic of the government, was thrown out of parliament last year amid allegations he had leaked official documents to foreign diplomats.

He is the second presidential hopeful to pull out of the election, which is virtually certain to be won by the incumbent, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. </s> The nephew of assassinated Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat said on Monday he would not, as widely expected, challenge incumbent Abdel Fattah Sisi in the presidential election because an environment of fear surrounds the vote.



Sisi has yet to announce his candidacy but is widely expected to run and easily win a ballot slated for March 26-28.



Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat, whose uncle led a sweeping economic liberalization program and opened ties with Israel before his assassination in 1981, had previously said he was mulling a run.



Though unlikely to upset Sisi's campaign, it would have carried the weight of a household name likely to garner some support.
The former Prime Minister of Egypt, 76-year-old Ahmed Shafik, retracts his candidacy for the upcoming presidential elections.