Egypt's former spy chief Omar Suleiman will contest the first post-Mubarak presidential election next month as thousands of supporters of a radical Islamist presidential hopeful rallied in the capital ON Friday.
"I can not refuse people's will. Even though I said in my previous statement that I will face a lot of troubles and difficulties," Soleiman said today in response to a rally by hundreds of his supporters demanding that he contest the presidential polls, the first since last year's ouster or Hosni Mubarak.
"The call you issued today was an order, and I am a soldier who has never in my life disobeyed an order ... I cannot but reply to the call and join the race," he said in a statement Soleiman, who served as Mubarak's vice-president before the strongman's overthrow last year, had announced yesterday that he won't seek the country's highest office due to "difficult political situation and because he cannot fulfil the conditions required to become an official candidate."
His supporters today held rallies carrying plycards with slogans: "Save us from the Muslim Brotherhood".
It forced him to issue a statement saying that he will run for the May 23-24 presidential election. He said he will work to "achieve the required change and complete the goals of the revolution and realize the hopes of the Egyptian people in security, stability, prosperity".
However, he said he will step out of the race if he fails to collect the 30,000 recommendation forms needed by tomorrow. He is required, like other presidential candidates, to collect 30,000 recommendation forms, in order to run in Egypt's first presidential elections. Deadline for filing the forms is on 8 April.
Meanwhile, thousands of supporters of Hazem Abu Ismail, a 50-year-old lawyer-turned-preacher who has the widespread backing from radical Islamist group Salafis, rallied in the capital amid fears that he may be disqualified from the race after it was announced that his mother was an American citizen.
Though Abu Ismail has not yet been disqualified, Egypt's election commission announced yesterday that his mother was a US citizen. Egyptian election law in the post-Mubarak's era stipulates that a candidate may not have any other citizenship than Egyptian -- and that the candidate's spouse and parents cannot have other citizenships as well.
Abu Ismail has accused his opponents of an "elaborate plot" against him and insisted his mother only had a Green Card to visit her daughter, who is married to an American and lives in the United States. If Abu Ismail is disqualified, it opens the door for Muslim Brotherhood candidate Khairat el-Shater to win a greater number of Islamist votes.