Shafiq may run for presidential election in 2018

CAIRO – 23 May 2017: The National Movement Party announced Ahmed Shafiq will run for the upcoming presidential elections in 2018, the party’s head, Major-General Raouf al-Sayyed, asserted on Tuesday.

Sayyed asserted that nothing will stop Shafiq from running for the presidential elections.
He told Masr al-Arabiya website that he met with Shafiq in the United Arab Emirates and discussed many issues about the party, in addition to the Egyptian local affairs.”Shafiq has so many supporters in the Egyptian society,” Sayyed stressed.

He noted that Shafiq did not want to announce his intention for the presidential candidacy because he did not find the right time to do so till this moment. Moreover, Shafiq did not inform the party officially about his final decision.

Sayyed said, "2018 presidential elections race will be enriched by Shafiq’s candidacy and the National Movement is ready to support him in the presidential elections immediately after announcing his final decision officially.”

Earlier in February, Shafiq denied to Egypt Today that he would run for the 2018 presidential elections. He said, “this false news aims only at making a scoop.”
He lost the presidential elections of 2012 to Mohamed Morsi, who ran for the Freedom and Justice Party. After, he fled to UAE and his name was placed on airports arrival watch list.

In 2013, the criminal court acquitted Shafiq from various accusations over illegitimate land selling and corruption and he was removed from the arrival watch list in November 2016.