MP and lawyer Mortada Mansour backtracks on Egyptian presidential bid

The head of Egypt’s sports club Zamalek and Member of Parliament Mortada Mansour said on Saturday that he will not run the upcoming presidential elections scheduled for March.

The controversial MP announced his bid on January 14 with to the privately-owned TV channel Sada El-Balad.

During a press conference he held in his house, Mansour extended his thanks to his fellow MPs who signed recommendation forms for him, and people who submitted endorsements for him to run the presidential elections.

“The details will be announced in full later, and I will announce the candidate I will support in the next election at the time,” he said.

Mansour said he held the press conference in his house and not in Zamalek sports club, as the club has no basic relation to the conference, and secondly because he is feeling ill since a week ago.

Egypt’s 2014 constitution stipulates that any presidential hopefuls must collect authorization from either 20 MPs or 25,000 Egyptian eligible voters from a number of governorates.

Mansour, considered one of the most controversial public figures in Egypt, has asserted that if elected as the president, his first decision would have been the suspension of Facebook.

Source: Al-Masry Al-Youm