CAIRO - Opposition politician Ayman Nour on Thursday said he will run in the first democratic presidential elections following Hosni Mubarak's ousting, having been pardoned by the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces on Wednesday, the official Middle East News Agency reported. Nour, who will be supported by Al-Ghad Al-Thawra Party, added that he will submit his papers on Friday to the Higher Presidential Elections Commission (HPEC). Nour, a headache for the former regime, was imprisoned on fraud charges after contesting the 2005 elections, because he forged signatures to found Al-Ghad Party. He was runner-up to Mubarak in the 2005 race and the former regime got its revenge by sending him to prison. Meanwhile, Abdel-Moneim Abul Fotouh, another hopeful, officially presented his papers on Thursday to the HPEC, with about 40,000 signatures. “We still live for the sake of Egypt,” Abul Fotouh said at the HPEC. “We will do our best to make Egypt strong and free, allowing Egyptians to live a good life. “We will work to give the Egyptian martyrs their rights; we will defend the unity of the home and stresses that Egyptians have equal rights and duties. Egypt's fortune is only for Egyptians and the next president will serve them all.” The Muslim Brotherhood have said they will announce next Tuesday their candidate for the presidential elections, despite having previously said they wouldn't run for presidency. They fear that, without a Brotherhood presidential candidate, the organisation's younger members will vote for Abul Fotouh, whom the organisation banished last year after he declared his presidential candidacy, despite the Brotherhood's policy against running a presidential candidate at that time. People in the street are split over whether the Muslim Brotherhood should field a candidate. “The Muslim Brotherhood shouldn't field another candidate,” Mai Ibrahim, a 26-year-old employee, told The Egyptian Gazette on the telephone, adding that they should try and unify the voting, especially as they have a majority in Parliament. But Shawkat Ragab, a 30-year-old vet, said that the Brotherhood have the right to field a candidate and they might have an excellent platform. Presidential hopefuls continued collecting signatures nationwide, having started to do so on March 10. They have until April 8 to meet the candidacy requirements. The presidential elections will be held on May 23-24 and, if necessary, there will be a runoff in June. Salafist presidential hopeful Hazem Abu Ismail, meanwhile, said that he will submit the necessary signatures on Friday, denying rumours that he is ineligible to run as a candidate because his mother holds US citizenship. Media reports that have been circulating since Wednesday evening, claiming that his mother is an American citizen, are completely false, Abu Ismail said. Other reports claimed that his wife holds US citizenship as well. "I would like to inform people that all my family are from Mansoura," he added. "This is just the season of rumours. Let them use this stuff to sell papers if they want." According to Egyptian Law, candidates for the presidency must be solely Egyptian, with both parents holding only Egyptian citizenship. Abu Ismail is a prominent Salafist preacher who is considered one of the frontrunners for the presidential race.
