By Aydogan Kalabalik
CAIRO (AA) – 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.
