CAIRO: Mohamed ELBaradei will run in upcoming presidential elections, the former IAEA chief said during a meeting with members of the National Association for Chance (NAC) and other supporters at his Cairo home on Monday. Mostafa al-Naggar, the campaign's general coordinator, told the Daily News Egypt that the official announcement will be made in a press conference soon. According to the campaign's website, ElBaradei said it would be an honor to serve the Egyptian people and participate in the reform process. “ElBaradei is the one public figure who was most subjected to smear campaigns by the former regime,” Al-Naggar told the Daily News. “But we will launch a counter campaign to correct these misconceptions and convey ElBaradei's true image.” ElBaradei, who is 68, had previously stated that Egypt's next president should be in their 40s or 50s, but even then did not rule out a bid for the presidency. ElBaradei is a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and was acclaimed for his work as head of the U.N's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. Since the beginning of 2010 ElBaradei has become a prominent opposition figure, with many Egyptians seeing him as someone respected both by Egyptians and the international community. BM
