Around 6,000 police officers will be deployed at Cairo airport Friday for the arrival of former UN nuclear agency head Mohamed ElBaradei, a local newspaper reported, where large crowds of supporters are expected to greet him. ElBaradei is seen as a possible future presidential candidate since he announced last year he would not rule out running for the country's presidential elections. Al-Shorouk daily quoted an anonymous security source as saying that some of the security deployed will be wearing civilian clothes, and have been ordered to break up any riots. However, witnesses said that there was no apparent extra security at the airport early on Friday. Earlier this week Egyptian security officials warned against any illegal gatherings to welcome ElBaradei. In Egypt, large public gatherings are illegal and can be broken up by police according to the emergency laws. Some opposition groups have announced they would support an ElBaradei candidacy - and called on the public to give a warm reception for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate when he arrives. Supporters of ElBaradei have used the internet to form several social networking websites campaigning for his candidacy in the 2011 elections. A Facebook group has 60,000 members, while the opposition group Kifaya (Enough) issued a statement welcoming ElBaradei and urging him tosettle in Egypt. ElBaradei, as an independent, is constitutionally prohibited from running for the presidential elections. Amendments to Article 76 of the Egyptian constitution, passed in 2007, require presidential candidates to have been a member of a legal party's senior leadership for at least a year. ElBaradei has held no such post.
